June is National Homeownership Month, and experts gathered in Toledo Monday to discuss the challenges facing people trying to buy a home.
The Toledo Rotary Club hosted a luncheon at the Glass City Center, where a panel broke down statewide and local housing data and discussed how those trends are impacting the city.
A major focus of the conversation was affordability. Matt Klesta with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland said home prices and rents in Lucas County have increased faster than the national average in recent years.
“I look at home prices and how that’s changed over time,” Klesta said. “And I see that over the past couple of years, home prices and rents in Lucas County have increased a little faster than the national average.”
Experts said one factor contributing to the issue is a lack of new housing being built.
Since 2010, average income in Toledo has increased 13%, while the average home price has risen 39%.
Klesta said vacancy rates are also playing a role.
“Home ownership vacancy rate is very low, rental vacancy is going down, so that all contributes to home prices going up, kind of that supply and demand issue going on,” Klesta said.
Representatives from Fair Housing, Land Bank, ProMedica and Maumee Habitat for Humanity also joined the discussion.
Erin McPartland, CEO of Habitat for Humanity, said the data reflects what her organization hears from families looking for homes.
“It really wasn’t surprising to us affordable housing providers because we’re seeing and hearing it from our families,” McPartland said. “Our families are telling us, hey, I can afford a home, I can get a loan, but there really isn’t anything out there decent for me to buy in my affordable range.”
Panelists discussed possible solutions, but McPartland said more funding is needed to expand efforts.
“We talked a lot about the need and how we really need to scale and a lot of the funding that we have right now just doesn’t allow us to scale at the size and the quickness of what our community needs,” McPartland said.
McPartland said improving housing in Toledo requires a community-wide effort.
“I think sometimes people can look at a neighborhood and say, well, that’s not my neighborhood, so that’s OK,” McPartland said. “But it’s really a community and it takes a community.”
The Toledo Rotary Club will host another luncheon next Monday at noon to close out Homeownership Month at the Glass City Center.
