A new report shows the Upper Cumberland has a housing crisis due to unaffordable housing costs.
UCHRA Executive Director Mark Farley gave a synopsis of a report from the Sycamore Institute during the UCHRA Policy Council Meeting Wednesday. Farley said the population growth has caused a shortage of affordable homes.
“You’ve got a growth line of people moving in from all across the United States moving into the state of Tennessee,” Farley said. “Yet the number of homes being built is still fairly flatlined.”
Farley said the average home price in Cumberland County is $305,000. Farley said many young couples are unable to afford housing at that price.
“To be able to afford an average home that’s on the market today in Cumberland County that young couple has to have a household income of around $75,000 and if they are going to put a 20 percent down payment they are gonna have to have $70,000 in the bank,” Farley said. “How many young families that you know that are making $75,000 a year and are able to put down $70,000. That is happening across the whole region, it’s all the whole state as well.”
Farley said new homes are being built in Putnam County, but, for the most part, the housing is not affordable. Farley said more rural counties in the Upper Cumberland are failing to meet the housing demand with an increase in population.
“You got a lot of communities that there’s not much going on at all,” Farley said. “You take a Clay County, a Jackson County, are you getting some new construction, yes, but you are not getting near the pace that you need to maintain.”
Farley said the average time for a house to be on the market nationwide is six months. Farley said in recent years houses in the Upper Cumberland and especially in Putnam County houses sell after only being on the market for two weeks.
Farley said school systems should be teaching more building trades to try and get more houses into the region.
Farley said an estimated 300,000 people have moved to Tennessee within the past five years. The Sycamore Institute is based in Tennessee.
