Residents’ income growing; so is the housing “affordability gap”

As the area’s median income goes up in Eagle County, so do rental and sales prices for workforce housing. And the “affordability gap” keeps growing between median home prices and median income.

During a Tuesday presentation to the Eagle County Board of Commissioners, Tori Franks, the county’s sustainability director, went over the numbers as part of a presentation regarding housing guidelines and changes to the non-residential portion of those guidelines. The commissioners unanimously passed those changes.

As part of the presentation, Franks discussed the most recent area median income numbers from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. As with just about everything else, those numbers have increased over the past few years.

Eagle County’s area median income for a four-person household with two people working is now $118,300 per year. That’s up from the last figure of $111,800.

That higher number means increases in both deed-restricted sales prices and rental rates.

If that four-person household spends no more than 30% of its income on housing, the rent is $2,662 for a two-bedroom apartment leased by a four-person, two-income household.

For the same household, the sale price is $390,000 for a deedrestricted, two-bedroom unit.

Eagle County also makes deed-restricted units available to those earning up to 140% of the area median income which is $165,620 for a four-person, two-job household.

For that household, the sale price would be $548,000 for a two-bedroom unit.

Officials have expanded the eligibility for deed-restricted units due to the county’s “affordability gap,” the distance between the median home price in the county, and what a family close to the area median income can afford.

Based on 2022 data, the median home price in Eagle County is $ 1.2 million. The average household buying power in the county is not quite $ 433,000. That leaves an affordability gap of $767,000.

That, Franks said, is why 40 people applied last month to buy a deed-restricted single-family home in Edwards.