The lack of affordable and low incoming housing in the National Capital Region is an ongoing problem.  As early as the late 1990s the economic growth enabled more people to buy homes.  Leading to strong residential development which severely out paced multifamily.  As more people benefited from the gains in the growing housing market developers continued to build.  Then in 2007 the music stopped.

City managers and county commissioners allowed developers to take the lead for the past twenty years.  And why not.  The tax review increased and high paying jobs weathered the region through the great recession.  But it wasn’t until some city managers realized that having to build new schools and appropriate funding each year to support communities that it was better to have more business revenue that bedrooms.  Businesses generate more tax revenue than homes.  More homes equate to the need for more schools, libraries, parks for kids, and buses to shuttle them around.  All while the median income hovered at $110,000 per household.

Upsides For Affordable And Low Income Housing Developments

• New Markets Tax Credits are still a great ways to inject equity into deals
• Low-Income Housing Tax Credits affords developers creative funding and financing
• Opportunity Zones investment offer great tax incentives
• Municipal grants are being offered for development in qualified census tracks
• Billions in liquidity injected into the market due to COVID-19 pandemic

Affordable and low income housing was left out of the picture during the urban sprawls.  Now town homes prices have crept into the mid five-hundreds in some areas.  While single family homes in some zip codes are in the low eight-hundreds.  Yet the average Starbucks Barista cannot afford to live in the community he or she works.

But there appears to be some relief on the horizon.  More mixed use development that has retail and commercial space on the ground floor are trending.  As several counties are incentivizing low to moderate incoming apartment housing to meet area medium income standards.