Out-of-reach housing

If the Washoe-Reno housing market has been hot lately, it has been getting unaffordable too.

And it's not getting any better.

In June, according to the Reno office of the U.S.Housing and Urban Development, the median price of a single-family home was $319,000.

In September in a span of just one quarter it had shot up to $342,000.

That is about $120,000 more than what's considered an affordable price as measured against median family income of $63,700 and the prevailing 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 5.3 percent.

The Carson City median price for a singlefamily home in June was even higher than Reno's figure and stood at $347,000, according to the HUD figures.

Prices will keep going up but probably not as fast as in the recent past, says Tony Ramirez, field office director of the Reno HUD office.

"That's because these days houses are on the market longer.And there is more inventory out there,"Ramirez says.

If rising prices are a sore point for those who can't afford a home, it's a concern for homebuilders too.

It's not a good thing when median home prices go up, says Jesse Haw, president of the Builders Association of Northern Nevada.

"Builders want to keep things as affordable as possible and sell as many houses as they can.

They don't want prices to just go up and sell fewer houses.

That's not our goal,"Haw says.

Incomes aren't likely to catch up with home prices any time soon.

Costs of construction materials pushed prices up in recent months,Haw says, and now the rise in oil prices will cause further increases.

"A lot of things like doors,windows, pipes and glass use oil, and transporting materials has gotten more expensive," he says.

Then there's the matter of labor costs.

"You can't get bids to get a subdivision done for lack of subcontractors,"Haws says.

"And there are not enough construction workers too." But he sees the situation improving as subcontractors and employees migrate from other states.

But the bigger factors in Washoe County are the lack of land for development and a sharp jump in the price of water from $3,600 to $50,000 per acre-foot in recent months.

"Unfortunately in Washoe County there isn't a significant amount of public land that is buildable," says Jodi Royal-Goodwin, community resources specialist with the City of Reno.

"We are trying to look at if there are potential sites that may be buildable.

Otherwise really our developers have to depend on the private market as opposed to purchasing federal land." Study of the water issues, Royal-Goodwin says, is at the beginning stages.

"We are working with different agencies HUD and planning department to first have an understanding of how these processes work,"Royal-Goodwin says.

Haw appreciates the help of the government agencies and officials to deal with issues of affordability and says the responsibility also rests with builders.

"We in the industry have to come up with specific ideas, goals and proposals.We can't simply complain," he says.

The Community Resources Program of the City of Reno has been doing its bit to help ameliorate the problem for homebuyers in its own limited way.

It's provided down payment assistance for about 30 qualifying buyers.

It helped develop affordable homes for sale at Hillsboro Place, which was part of a neighborhood revitalization effort.

That was a partnership with the city, the Reno Housing Authority and private entities such as Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo banks.

But a majority of its effort to ease the affordable housing crunch comes through development of rental units in central and south-central Reno as well as Sparks.