Housing shortage touches Jackson County, northeastern Kansas

For potential homebuyers — not just in Jackson County or in northeastern Kansas, but anywhere in the nation — the inventory of available residences for sale is low while the price tags attached to those residences are high.

But while many real estate markets have seen the prices rising and the inventory sinking during the COVID-19 pandemic, some realtors — including Roger Hower of Kellerman Real Estate — believe the current housing shortage issue began well before the coronavirus was on anybody’s mind and has more facets to it than just those related to the pandemic.

Some steps have been taken to alleviate this shortage locally, such as the Banner Oaks subdivision currently being developed at Holton’s southern edge. But Hower said it will take more than just the construction of a few new homes to build up an inventory of houses that he and other local realtors can sell.

That’s a problem, he said, especially now that Topeka and the surrounding area has been declared “the third-hottest market in the United States.”

As of Monday, Hower noted that there are only 10 houses actively up for sale in Jackson County, with another 14 under contract — meaning that the seller of a house has accepted an offer on the house, but there’s still paperwork to finalize and other loose ends to tie up.

Prior to the 2008 housing crisis — which Hower said is the real root cause of the current housing shortage — the county would have 40 to 50 homes for sale, with that total reaching to 80 or 90 in the spring and summer months, he said.

“A lot of builders got burned, and a lot of lenders got burned,” Hower said of the 2008 housing crisis. “After that, it just took builders too long to get back in the game.”

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