F.C. Affordable Housing Needs Declared Acute

An explosion in housing values in the City of Falls Church has outstripped income growth here and has left a stunning number of citizens paying far too much for their mortgages, a study by the Falls Church City Division of Housing and Human Services has revealed.

Only six percent of households in the City could afford to buy a home here now, Housing Specialist Tennille Smith-Parker reported in the annual Housing and Community Development Consolidated Plan report presented to a work session of the Falls Church City Council Monday. She will reprise her presentation to the Council at its regular business meeting this coming Monday night.

The report concludes that there is a pressing need for affordable housing in Falls Church, noting that no new rental units have been constructed in the City since 1960, that all units here are now going for over $1,000 a month, and at least 170 currently-existing relatively affordable rental units are expected to either convert to expensive condominiums or otherwise be removed from the market in the near future. In addition, another 270 market rate rental units are due to be lost, bringing to 440 the number of projected lost rental units in the near future here.

The assessed value of an average single family detached home in the City is now $527,000, and the average value of all homes is $437,830, the report said. Over half the homes sold in 2003 went for over $600,000.

Based on strict mortgage financing guidelines that stipulate household costs should not exceed 30% of annual income, only six percent of the City's existing households could qualify for a mortgage on an average home, and only three percent of all new construction is affordable for anyone earning up to $68,000 per year, according to the report.

Over 80% of all City households earning between $26,000 and $68,000 a year are living in housing that is not affordable by the 30% of income standard.

As for rental units, Smith-Parker noted that a worker earning the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour would have to work 213 hours a week to afford an average apartment in Falls Church. For households earning between $26,000 and $42,000 a year, there are only two affordable rental units existing for every three households.

In conjunction with the data in this report, a 16-page marketing assessment of the Falls Church Housing Corporation's proposed West End View senior affordable housing project prepared by TAI Realty, Ltd., concludes that, by offering monthly rents below $1,000, "this project can achieve easily stabilized occupancy of 95% or more within one-year of completion.