More Can Afford Houses in County, Study Concludes
More Ventura County residents can afford to buy a home today than a year ago, despite a long-term housing shortage and prices that continue to climb much faster than most salaries.
That is what researchers with the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project have found. The group’s annual forecast, released Thursday, reported that 37.4% of county residents are able to afford a median-priced home in the $300,000 range. That is up from 35.5% of residents last year and from 31.4% in 2000.
The overall increase in the housing affordability index is attributed to an explosion in the number of well-paid engineers, researchers and executives in the county’s technology sector.
Anchored by biotechnology giant Amgen of Thousand Oaks and supported by other medical, science and technology companies, Ventura County’s nondurable goods sector has swelled its payroll by 76% since 1997, from 8,800 jobs to about 15,500 jobs this year. In a county with just under 300,000 jobs total, Amgen, with more than 5,400 workers, is the largest private employer.
Average annual salaries in the nondurable goods sector skyrocketed, from $35,000 in 1997 to about $85,000 this year, the UCSB study found.
“Things are changing for the better,” said Jerry E. Knotts of Thousand Oaks, financial services manager for the California Manufacturing Technology Center. “It’s doubtful that homes here will ever be affordable for everybody. But we’re moving in the right direction.”
Home Ownership Still Not Possible for Many
Barbara Macri-Ortiz, an Oxnard-based attorney and affordable housing advocate, said the statistics belie the larger picture.
“Maybe it’s great for those who are making money hand over fist,” she said, “but there’s a huge disparity between the corporate CEOs and high-tech industries out there in the east county, the ‘knowledged workers,’ and the rest of the county, which is going in reverse. [Home ownership] is farther and farther out of reach.”
The county’s 22,000 agricultural workers will earn on average about $21,000 this year, up from about $19,000 in 1997. The county’s more than 53,000 retail workers also will earn an average salary of $21,000 this year, up from $17,000 in 1997.
UCSB economists predict that the median existing single-family home price, which stood at $218,000 in 1997, could average $336,000 this year.
The median price for existing single-family homes was $338,000 countywide for the fourth quarter of 2001, according to the most recent figures from the California Assn. of Realtors. But DataQuick Information Systems Inc., whose numbers include condominiums and new homes, calculates the county’s median home price was $284,000 last month.
Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Assn. of Realtors, said affordability is in the eye of the beholder.
“You’re attracting skilled labor that can afford a home,” she said. “But how are we going to attract good teachers? We are not getting the kind of construction we need. You can’t continue to grow an economy without affordable housing.”
