While a lot of well-intentioned people wring their hands and bemoan the lack of affordable housing, a few actually do something about it.
Sure, massive and sometimes effective federal, state and city programs try to ensure all citizens will have some place to live. Nonprofit social service agencies and outstanding business/agency partnerships such as Habitat for Humanity make housing their top priority.
Now the Maryland Association of Realtors is launching its “We Bring You Home” campaign to “get a cross-section of residents from across the state of Maryland to work with us to identify programs that can help them,” explained association President Alan R. Ingraham.
The Realtors launched the campaign after funding a study showing the future is bleak for a wide range of Maryland families when it comes to the dream of home ownership.
From 2003 to this year, housing prices in Maryland grew four times faster than average household income. According to the study, housing affordability in the future will continue to deteriorate from a variety of forces, including continued rising values, higher interest rates, increased demand, limited supply, trailing income growth and property taxes going up faster than inflation.
Ingraham said, “We?re trying to make residents across the state aware that there are a multitude of [homeownership] options available to them. At the same time, we?re trying to enlist their support to work with us in investigating those issues” that affect affordable housing.
Certainly the association has a heavy measure of enlightened self-interest when it comes to affordable housing and home ownership. Most people at the high end of the housing market started at the bottom. They make enough on the first house to buy a better house.
Affordable homeownership is not only a cohesive social force, it provides the initial feedstock for the entire real estate industry. So sure, Realtors want people to be able to buy that first home.
But beyond that, owner-occupied housing is the key indicator, and some experts say prime cause, of strong communities and economic well-being. A labor force that can buy into the system is better than workers who have no stake or hope of getting one. Housing cost is one of the fundamental forces putting real upward pressure on wages.
A good labor force is essential to a region?s economic growth, and decent housing is one of the top factors in keeping and attracting a good labor force. That elevates the Maryland Association of Realtors? “We Bring You Home” message above routine business and industry media campaigns.
Every aspect of housing involves public policy issues. Every level of government has a stake in this. And certainly, all businesses here must understand affordable housing has an impact on their bottom lines.
The Realtors know first hand there is a problem. They quantified it with a study; now they are taking action to be part of the solution.
