Fernley’s housing market may look cheaper than its neighbors, but the city is feeling the strain of Nevada’s wider affordability crisis, Nevada Housing Coalition Executive Director Maurice Page told the Fernley City Council at its Nov. 19 meeting.
Page said in rural northern Nevada there is a deficit of 16,000 to 17,000 housing units affordable to extremely low income families and a shortage of about 140,000 housing units statewide that is available to middle income families.
Though Fernley has lower housing costs than many of the surrounding communities, there are about 4,000 housing units that have been approved but not built in Fernley that developers say have gone “stagnant” because of high costs per square foot, due to high labor costs, Councilman Ryan Hanan said.
He said developers have told him the average construction wage is now about $70,000 a year, about double what it was just a few years ago, which adds to the per square foot construction costs.
Page said though that may be the case in the construction industry, overall, housing costs have risen 50 to 60 percent over the last few years, while wages have only increased about 2.5 percent, increasing housing unaffordability considerably.
Page said that is why it is important to educate the public about affordable housing, which has a misconception that affordable housing brings lower property values and crime with it.
Two decades of research has shown there is no negative impact on nearby property values, and, in fact, nearby affordable housing “may actually lead to a slight increase in property values,” Page said.
Affordable housing “simply means that a household pays no more than 30 percent of their income towards housing. It does not mean low quality, or high density, or government owned housing,” Page said, noting that affordable housing serves essential workers.
In Fernley, Page said the average income that a person needs to make to afford a studio or one-bedroom apartment is about $39,000.
Comparing Fernley rental costs with typical incomes, those working in manufacturing, retail and construction “can somewhat afford” a studio or one-bedroom apartment. But when looking at housing with two to four bedrooms “it becomes out of their price range and this is where you have to double up with family and friends to move in together to be able to cover the bills and expenses,” Page said.
Part of the problem is lack of federal funding to subsidize affordable housing projects, Page said. He said Nevada is consistently at the bottom of federal funding per capita, receiving approximately $800 less per person than the national average.
“For a community like Fernley, this majorly impacts where you can grow and how the infrastructure of how you would like to build out,” he said. “Because of your population growing, it also affects where the money is going to go to.”
As a result, getting state funding for housing becomes even more important. But the legislature is stepping up, taking up more and more housing bills in each legislative session, approving 26 of 63 housing bills introduced during the last legislative session, a 40 percent success rate, Page said.
Page said during a presentation to the Fernley Planning Commission the previous week, concerns were expressed about water infrastructure, and whether more housing is wanted.
Page told the council he is trying to get out into all of the jurisdictions in the state to present the coalition’s efforts and to partner with them to figure out the next steps when it comes to housing policy.
“And so, I want to know from your perspective, what you would like to see done, and then this way from there, we can figure out how we can achieve those goals,” Page said. “I think there’s ways for us to kind of meet in the middle as far as how you would like to see growth within the city, but I think it’s just awareness and education and the coalition is here to support you guys in any way and fashion that we can.”
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