Last week, Avalon Housing – the non-profit agency that works to end homelessness – announced that it had received nearly 7,000 timely applications for soon-to-be-completed housing units at The Grove at Veridian. The units are part of new housing being built on Platt Road on the site of the former Juvenile Detention Center. Avalon Housing has only 20 units available.
The jumbo-sized applicant pool is a reflection of the dire need for housing in Washtenaw County, and particularly in places like Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. This isn’t a simple matter of affordability, although housing affordability does play a role in the availability crisis.
Ultimately, housing here is a numbers game. And the numbers seem to indicate that we don’t have enough housing units to meet demand in this area. Housing availability has been a problem for so long that the majority of housing units in both Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti are rental properties.
The prospect of losing a rental home when there are few affordable housing options is terrifying for those who face it. High rents ensure that renters cannot save enough to afford a down payment. High median housing prices ($525,000 in Ann Arbor in December 2024) mean that “qualified buyers” need to earn between $130,000 and $150,000 annually and have a credit score near 750 to score a 30-year mortgage. And high interest rates mean that most buyers will need to spend more than 30% of their monthly incomes on housing.
The lack of affordable housing options also means that landlords have a free pass to raise rents by hundreds of dollars per month. They know that the high demand for and low supply of housing means that there is no shortage of people who will gladly pay premium prices for a place to call home.
Equip graduates to compete for affordable housing
Those most negatively impacted by the lack of affordable housing options are young adult workers, minorities, and households headed by women. If there is any reason to improve the earning potential of a two-year degree, being able to afford housing should be high on the list.
Right now – according to data that Washtenaw Community College supplies to the US Department of Education – the average WCC graduate earns less than $40,000 per year. At that earning rate, the WCC graduate can afford about $1,000 per month for housing.
Sadly, in January 2025, the median rent in Ypsilanti is $1,400, according to Zillow. In Ann Arbor, the median rent is $1,619. To rent, the median annual salary for an Ypsilanti resident is $56,000. In Ann Arbor, a renter’s annual salary must be about $65,000. And that’s just to afford the median rental unit.
We can’t keep supplying workers who earn 60%-70% of what they need to afford housing here. The market has already demonstrated that the simplistic solution – building houses – is not a quick solution to the housing shortage here. If it were, Washtenaw County would have all the houses it needs. And the banks have demonstrated that at 7% interest, financing a home purchase (and affording the payments) isn’t going to be easy for most buyers.
Under these circumstances, the best available option is to provide graduates with degrees that will enable them to earn enough to compete on price for available housing.
Marc Falardeau, via Flickr
