Public hearing on housing study is Thursday night

The Columbia Falls Planning Commission will have a public hearing on a draft housing study Thursday at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

After the hearing, the board will then consider whether to recommend the study to city council for full approval.

The council and the planning commission already had a joint workshop to go over the study, though no public comment was taken in that session.

The study exposed a large gap between income and what’s affordable for the bulk of Columbia Falls residents.

“In the Columbia Falls area ... affordability is a problem for a broad range of income levels, not just low income,” the study found.

The median sale price of homes in the Columbia Falls area is $575,000, which is 85% higher than in 2019, when it was $310,000. Homes below $300,000 made up 48% of sales just five years ago. Last year, just 7%.

The average annual wage in the Columbia Falls area is just over $52,000 a year. About 45% of families make $75,000 to $125,000 or more. But the other 55% make less and 16% make just $20,000 to $39,999 a year.

It requires a (family) income of about $180,000 at a 6.5% interest rate to afford a $600,000 home.

The home price escalation since 2020 — when house prices surged during the pandemic and kept up a 17% annual increase for several years — has wiped out the market for first-time homebuyers. Homes under $300,000 are almost gone and homes priced up to $500,000 often need significant repairs. Residents able to buy attached units in this price range are often competing with investment buyers and units may not be designed with local families in mind, the study found.

An attached unit would be something like a townhome or condominium.

Having said that, housing demand is still strong in the area.

It’s estimated that in the next five years the Columbia Falls area will need about 360 units to keep up with job growth by 2029 and 250 more from 2029 to 2034, assuming the economy continues to grow. That’s about 32 homes a year.

Add in projected population growth and Columbia Falls will need 32 more homes a year on average, assuming growth is 1% a year. If it rises to 1.5% the average increases to 39 a year.

The draft study did not include developer Mick Ruis’ plans to develop at least 900 acres of land that was formerly owned by the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. north of the city. Ruis recently bought the land from the company and has previously said he hopes to have initial plans for a housing project there in the next couple of months.