Housing study shows cost is a major issue northeast Nebraska
Housing has been a big topic around the country and in northeast Nebraska another housing study addressed the concerns and needs of Madison County.
NORFOLK, Neb.— Housing has been a big topic around the country and in northeast Nebraska another housing study addressed the concerns and needs of Madison County.
“We had an overwhelming response of people that put in and answered the survey questions,” Executive Director of Norfolk Housing Agency Rita Heinemann said. “So that's very helpful. I know I was hoping we'd get over 1,000, and we had 350 some, I believe.”
This year Hanna:Keelan Associates included a study on Norfolk specifically as well. The study breaks down the average cost, total vacancies and concerns from the public all in the over 100 page study.
The study says there were over 14 thousand households in the county and just over 16 thousand units, though the main concern for residents finding housing is the cost and condition of the available units.
“I always say, because people think it's just our community this is happening in, it's happening nationwide. We're all facing the same issues,” Heinemann said.
Despite this there have been about one thousand units built in the last five years and over half of those are in Norfolk.
“When we did the 2021 housing study for Norfolk between then and then coming back to the community now it's like we were kind of blown away with the number of housing units that were created in the community,” Senior Planner at Hanna:Keelan Associates Keith Carl said at a Norfolk City Council meeting. “When you build a lot of housing and it becomes full right away, like you'll probably see in the study, like, well, why is our vacancy rate still so low? It's like, well, you know, you're building housing, but at the same time, that housing is becoming occupied so quickly.”
The cost is still an issue as most of the participants of the study said their rent is over what they can afford and 21 percent of people were cost burdened, meaning over a third of their income is going towards housing costs.
Most people said an affordable price for a house would be one hundred thousand dollars to three hundred thousand dollars.