FAQs • San Juan County, WA • CivicEngage

Is there a shortage of affordable housing in San Juan County?: Working people and people who grew up in the islands have a hard time finding permanent housing in the County at prices local wages can support. According to data developed by Washington State University, San Juan County's residents typically have the greatest gap between household incomes and housing prices of any County in the state. Typical first-time home-buyers in San Juan County can afford a housing payment of less than 40% of the payment they must make to purchase a starter home. The average for the state is 77%. With a full 20% down, a median-income family of 4 in our county can still afford only 66% of the payment needed on a median-priced home, while in most parts of the state, the median-income family can afford 110% of the price of the median-priced home. For more information, see the Housing Affordability Crisis Fact Sheet (PDF).

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Affordable Housing

1. Is there a shortage of affordable housing in San Juan County?: Working people and people who grew up in the islands have a hard time finding permanent housing in the County at prices local wages can support. According to data developed by Washington State University, San Juan County's residents typically have the greatest gap between household incomes and housing prices of any County in the state. Typical first-time home-buyers in San Juan County can afford a housing payment of less than 40% of the payment they must make to purchase a starter home. The average for the state is 77%. With a full 20% down, a median-income family of 4 in our county can still afford only 66% of the payment needed on a median-priced home, while in most parts of the state, the median-income family can afford 110% of the price of the median-priced home. For more information, see the Housing Affordability Crisis Fact Sheet (PDF).

2. How are very low, low, moderate, and middle income groups determined?: Household income groups are defined as very low, low, moderate, middle and upper income by the relationship of their income to the median household income for the County. Households with incomes up to 50% of the median income are classified as very low-income; households with 50% to 80% of the median income are classified as low-income. Moderate-income households are those with 80% to 95% of the median, and middle-income households are those with 95% to 120% of the County median. Upper-income households are those whose household income is greater than 120% of the median.

Household income groups are not differentiated by household size in the Census. However, income ranges for different household sizes are used by the State and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to determine eligibility for various state and federal housing programs.

3. Why is there a shortage of affordable housing?: There are several factors that have combined to create the current crisis for local working people and local employers. View the list of factors on the Affordable Housing Shortage Page.

4. What measures can the County and State take to solve the affordable housing problem?: Like many complicated problems, there is no single, simple solution. The County needs to address availability of land, cost of land, availability of infrastructure, and a lack of experienced developers. The County has a number of programs ready to attack various parts of the housing affordability problem. Please view the
Shortage Solution Page.