Housing market focus of chamber's Lunch and Learn

Austin Johnson, The Daily Independent, Ashland, Ky.
Updated ·3 min read

Mar. 26—Kentucky's state population has grown 40% since 1970, according to the U.S Census.

The Northeast Chamber of Commerce hosted a Lunch and Learn focused on housing challenges and insecurities facing Kentuckians.

Charles Aull, executive director of Kentucky Chamber Center for Policy and Research, led the meeting and predicted continued population growth.

"It's a basic quality-of-life issue; it's one of those things that's different for a lot of us. Stable housing is something we take for granted but imagine you don't; that could have really big impacts on your quality of life," Aull said.

"Health outcomes, financial outcomes, educational outcomes, there is research showing that kids that grow in homes with unstable housing situations tend to have lower rates of high school graduation, lower educational performance and poor outcomes in terms of health and finance," he added.

A slideshow portion of Aull's presentation showcased numbers of when houses were built in Kentucky: 20.9% of housing units were built before 1960, 30.6% before 1970, 45.6% built before 1980 and 11.6% built since 2010.

Specifically for Boyd County, 47.8% of homes were built before 1970.

"Kentucky's housing market is showing signs of significant stress, with too few housing options on the market, an aging housing supply and housing costs that exceed what many Kentucky families can afford," according to Kentucky Chamber Center for Policy and Research.

Particularly since COVID, states in the South and Southeast have been "exploding" in terms of their growth. Aull said they are attracting a whole lot of people from other states and internationally — something Kentucky could potentially witness.

"One of the big questions is where is Kentucky going to go in this? ... We are kinda sandwiched in between these two different population growth trajectories. The Southeast is moving very quickly and your Midwest and Northeast, depopulating," Aull said.

"We are projected to be a moderate growth state, but we might start following those trends of the Southeast. Everything we have suggests growth for Kentucky — more people coming, more households forming and more families coming here," he added.

Aull has spoken to communities around the state and said the issue of housing is brought up "over and over and over."

"I get to travel across the state, talk to different communities about things that are going on, what types of challenges are they dealing with and what type of opportunities are they dealing with," he said.

Individuals looking for a home in Kentucky have fewer options than they used to, according to the Kentucky Chamber.

Only 0.7% of Kentucky's homeowner inventory is available for sale and only 4.3% of the rental market is available to rent. For Kentucky to return to historic norms at 2% and 7.2%, the state would need to "nearly triple" the number of available homes and "nearly double" the number of available rentals on the market.

A discussion portion opened up to the public where the 22 people attending the meeting anonymously answered questions on housing. One of the questions asked was if housing challenges are holding back economic growth and opportunity.

Sixty-eight percent of members attending voted yes, with 18% voting not sure and 14% voting no.

About 60% of Kentucky households have annual incomes that are less than $75,000, Aull said.

"Affordability is a major problem all across the state; the median sale price in October of last year (2023) was about $250,000, that's a 49% increase over where it was five years ago," Aull said. "The median household income in the state is about $60,000. Those types of prices are really really stretching a lot of those budgets. In some instances, it's just not reachable."