Teton Realty Blog

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Affordable Housing Crisis

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After attending a routine affordable housing meeting at the Teton County courthouse yesterday, I thought I would follow up and share my view with my readers.

Back in 2014 a survey was taken to determine the extent of affordability problems for housing and the local workforce. It of course showed that housing is difficult to find, is too expensive for the workforce, and that overall living conditions were crowded and less than ideal (all true). Regardless, at the time, I felt like the information was retrieved with a small portion of frustrated tenants. I now feel like the information is probably outdated. I would anticipate the average income has increased, but so have rents. The report also seems to mesh affordable home ownership and lack of affordable rentals, a big difference as pointed out by a commenter in yesterday’s meeting.

Now that you have an overview and understanding of the problem, the question becomes, what is the solution? Build affordable homes both for rent, and for sale. There are two problems that I can see with this tactic.

1) Obvious. Who pays for it? Construction costs exceed the necessary cost to complete a home that will ultimately be affordable, and if it were affordable, who pays for it? I suppose it would be an easier proposition for a developer and investor at that point, however.

2) At the meeting, I played devil’s advocate and brought up the second concern. What is the housing crisis is not as bad as we think it is, we find a way to build the necessary supply ***side note, one commenter mentioned the number of needed units to be in excess of SIX HUNDRED units*** at which point we create a localized bubble and oversupply of homes for purchase and homes for rent. This could have a lasting negative impact on existing homeowners who rely on rental income for their investment. I also mentioned that being in both the real estate and property management business, I did not believe that this number was accurate based on the business that comes through my door. This comment was brushed aside as inaccurate data that could not be measured based on my experience as a business owner, and that they would rather rely on the 5 year old report.

I should note that despite the problems, there was also another issue being discussed during the meeting that according to their analysis was exacerbating the problem. That is short-term rentals. They said that because of the increasing number of short-term rentals, we are taking away from affordable housing supply. I commented that I felt short-term rentals, or even higher quality long-term rentals have very little to do with affordable housing. Affordable housing does not make a great short-term rental, and a second homeowner or investor (or someone who owns a home and moved out of the area) are not going to forego higher rents to help solve an affordable housing crisis. I mentioned this, because it was brought up as part of the solution, which is what I’ll discuss next.

SOLUTIONS: No one at the meeting was threatening to restrict short-term rentals to strong-arm homeowners into renting on a long-term basis, hopefully an affordable one. I believe it was being discussed because of the lack of owners not operating a legitimate rental and paying their proportionate share of local city taxes. I suppose it could be argued that these taxes could help support a housing authority for low-income housing, but I believe this is a totally separate issue that should not be a part of the discussion at hand because it’s simply creates tension with those who are pro-property right and or own a short-term rental, further convoluting the issue at hand.

Even if the local government were to capitalize on tax income to help support the problem, it certainly doesn’t solve it. Another potential solution was to create deed restricted housing that could only be used for low-income purposes. This does help solve one of my two concerns above, that it could create an oversupply problem. If the units are restricted to a certain group of people who actually need the product, both for sale and for rent, it isolates itself and will likely have less impact on market priced homes. It may, in part, help with the second major problem, funding. If these units are restricted to low-income use, it may be feasible that there are available grants to help fund the project.

With the above being said, taxation and grants don’t solve the elephant in the room of funding a project like this in a market where construction costs are exceedingly high. However, discussions are a start. I just think it needs to be an approach that addresses all of the issues, including potential negative impacts. It also needs to be a solution that can be bipartisan from a political standpoint. That may seem silly in a small community like this, but I heard two very clear voices during the meeting. One stated that regulation of short-term rentals, of property rights, and taxation are not the solution to the problem. Another stated that we live in a community with many second homeowners, and even multiple homeowners. I believe the commenter’s exact words were that a person who owns their 7th home needs to participate in funding the problem. While I have no political agenda, I can see the handwriting on the wall. One commenter got it right, he said that both locals who have been here for generations, second homeowners, and even the workforce are here for one primary reason, and that is the opportunity to live in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, with it’s unique sense of community. We all want to preserve that. However, it relies, in part, on the workforce who needs this housing. The 7th homeowner needs those services, and the commenter believes that many of them will take steps to help ensure it remains this ways for generations to come, even if that means providing financial assistance.

If we can find a way to approach this without battling conservative State legislature which is in place to promote property rights, and without creating future problems for ourselves, while supporting a problem that we all can recognize, we should absolutely try. It to happen efficiently, effectively, and it needs to be based on real time, accurate data.

Short-Term Rental Pricing

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Price-fixing:

No, I’m not talking about real estate in general, or even real estate commissions. We all know that real estate prices are a collaboration of all of the local real estate agents who determine the market and the commissions the consumer pays. I’M KIDDING.
 
What I am talking about, however, is vacation rental costs. In my spare time (which is usually between 10 p.m. and 12 a.m. and 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.) I spend countless hours burning my eyeballs out looking at my over-sized smartphone, usually something real estate related. The other night, that was vacation rental prices in along the Gulf Coast. Why? I don’t know. So, what did I learn?
 
I learned that unfortunately, vacation rental prices in some areas are way. too. cheap. I was looking at 4 bedroom homes along the Gulf Coast for $89 a night. I thought to myself, “How could this be?”then I remembered that I probably know the answer. The vacation rental market is likely saturated and the market is competitive. I love Airbnb, but when somebody down the road is willing to lease a bedroom for $16.37 for the night with a free light beer in the fridge, it makes it a difficult proposition for everyone else.
 
Being the proud owner of a vacation rental in the Teton Valley area, and having a great knowledge of property management and vacation rental prices after a decade of property management, it got my wheels turning. Are our prices too cheap? Are we headed towards a competitive market place with not enough to go around?
 
Again, I know the answer to this too. Yes, our prices are too cheap. And no, I don’t think the market is over-saturated with the exception of shoulder seasons, but I guess that’s like anywhere else. Nonetheless, I took a detailed look at some of Teton Valley’s short-term rental offerings through various vendors to understand how how many mistakes are being made with respect to pricing. No, like the title suggests, I’m not price-fixing. I’m simply educating myself with what my competition charges, and looking at how much activity there is during certain times of the year. During this exercise, (I checked out a few dates in July of next year) I learned a couple of things.

1) Fortunately, there isn’t a huge number of short term rental owners that are under pricing during peak season – but there are a few.

 
2) There are certainly some marketing mistakes being made. One title was talking about how cool the Fall nights are. I’m not looking in the Fall. I don’t plan my vacations last minute like all of you non-planners, fellow Millennials, and Generation Z’s (or whatever you are).
 
3) Nobody was offering free light beer with a single bedroom stay.
 
My point with all of this is that seemingly, our market is not making the mistake that I witnessed in the Gulf Coast. At least not yet. It really, really, (really) needs to stay that way. There were a few advertising between 10 and 20% less than they should be, (others more) but I don’t think that’s going to kill the market. It’s just going to kill their return on investment. But, these are also probably the people who complain about a management fee that would probably be absorbed by proper management.
 
Anyway, I then looked at rates during shoulder seasons. I had to double-check to make sure that I wasn’t back on the Gulf Coast location, because I learned:
 
1) At least people are taking the initiative to change their prices during different seasons, but it really doesn’t need to be this dramatic.
 
2) That one guy who has 500 reviews and is renting his guest house for less than a hotel room is an idiot.
 
3) Nobody was offering free light beer with a single bedrooms stay.
 
To conclude, we really need to be careful. Idaho is a very pro property rights state. There likely isn’t going to be any restriction with the exception of subdivision homeowners association restriction on short-term rentals anytime soon. This is a good thing and a bad thing. On one hand it protects our interests as short-term rental investors, but on the other it also invites future competitors. As I mentioned at the outset of this article, we have room to grow. We are gaining popularity as a recreational destination for good reason. But, some of these locations I was viewing on the coast were destinations in their own right. It only takes one guy with 500 great reviews to start a revolution, in a bad way. We need to be fair with ourselves as investors and property owners, and we need to understand that people are willing to pay for clean, comfortable accommodations in one of the most beautiful locations in the world.
 
On that note, cheers!

Teton County Zoning, what you need to know

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Oftentimes I receive questions from prospective buyers, (sometimes sellers) as to what they can do with their property, or perhaps how they can advertise their property. When it comes to the city municipalities, they have their own set of zoning regulations and Zoning Maps such as the cities of Driggs and Victor. Each Zone has its own set of code requirements, and you can navigate this information relatively easy on each city’s respective website. The cities, however, take up a very small portion of the usable land in Teton County. The vast majority of private land is in the county itself.

At first glance, the county has only a few zones when compared with Driggs or Victor. In a nutshell, these are agriculture, commercial, manufacturing, public lands and the city areas of impact. Of this acreage, only a very small amount of the county contains commercial or manufacturing zoning, the vast majority is agriculture, with 2.5 to 20 acre density requirements. As long as there isn’t anything abnormal going on, you can subdivide acreage through the formal subdivision process in these areas as long as the finished product meets the density requirement in that zone. Each parcel can then have a house and a guest house, as well as a well and septic system, assuming it meets Department of Health requirements. Each parcel can water up to 1/2 acre per Idaho’s water regulations.
So, the question is, and the point of this article, can you do anything on your agricultural zoned property other than a single family residence with guest house (or of course agriculture)?
The answer is yes, as long as you conform to the land use requirements in the county. In a sense, the name of the zoning is a bit deceiving. It leads most to believe that only agriculture is allowed, and some even question the ability to have a home. Since we talked about that above, let’s talk about some of the other allowed, or allowable uses.
The County’s existing land use regulations are split into three categories. They are:
  • Permitted by Right
  • Permitted with Conditions
  • Permitted with Conditional Use
In a nutshell, if you are trying to do something that is permitted by right, you don’t have to ask in most cases. If it is permitted with conditions, obviously you need to make sure that the conditions are met, and the same rules apply. If it is permitted with a conditional-use permit, there are special requirements that vary based on the nature of whatever it is you are trying to do. Some interesting ones; a home daycare is permitted for up to 6 children, and 7 to 10 children is permitted with conditions. An aviation field is permitted in agricultural zones with a conditional-use permit. A church, or place of worship can be permitted with a conditional-use permit. The list goes on.
Many sectors of retail, manufacturing, and even some residential types are still limited to commercially zoned areas such as convenience stores, bakeries, bars, beauty shops, golf courses, grocery stores, hotels, restaurants – you get the idea. In a way this makes sense, and most of these services would make more sense located within city limits anyway.
You can find the County’s land use Matrix table beginning on page 29 of title 8 of the Teton Valley code, zoning regulations. That link is below.
Teton Valley Code (see Chapter 8)

Will Heat Pumps Work in the Teton Valley Climate

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You’ll probably find a video in the coming weeks with respect to heat pumps in our climate, I’ve just installed one. One can assume that probably means that they do work in our climate, otherwise I wouldn’t have installed one. The real answer is, pretty much. With that said, read on for details.

The first thing to understand about heat pumps is how they work. In a traditional sense, heat is created by burning fuel (in the case of Teton Valley, propane, whereas natural gas is not available) or with the use of an electric heating element much the heating element in your oven, or the elements that glow bright red in your toaster. Heat pumps work much differently. Essentially, they absorb heat from the outside and transfer that heat inside your home through refrigerant. Refrigerant has all sorts of weird properties that allow it to boil and change from a liquid to a vapor at temperatures far different than something like water.

Not all heat pumps are created equal, there are different types. The most common types are air source and ground or water source heat pumps.

Ground source heat pumps are more traditionally referred to as geothermal systems.  There are different types of geothermal systems. The most common types are open-loop and closed-loop, we see closed loop systems more frequently in our area, but I have seen both. With a  closed loop  system, liquid is pumped through tubes in the ground which is naturally warm, even throughout the winter months. The heat that is absorbed is then extracted from the liquid as it returns to the heat pump, and the cold water is then pumped back into the ground to be reheated naturally. In the case of an open loop system, groundwater is used usually from a domestic well, the heat is extracted, and the water is then allowed to drain or in some cases is injected back into the ground.

Air source heat pumps are more traditionally referred to as condensers and evaporators, a good example is an air conditioning system. An air conditioner works by absorbing heat inside the home, then transferring it outside. In the winter the cycle reverses, and the heat is absorbed from the outside air and transferred inside. Believe it or not, there’s enough heat in the outdoor air even at very low temperatures. Obviously a major benefit of an air source system is that it can be reversed, and the home is then air-conditioned during the cooling months. The downside is that these systems begin to lose efficiency at about 0 degrees Fahrenheit, but can operate efficiently in Sub-Zero temperatures to a point. This is why at the preface of my article I said “pretty much.”

With respect to the air source systems, it never gets below 0 degrees in Teton Valley, so there’s nothing to worry about. Right? Sarcasm aside, there are solutions. The easiest solution is obviously a backup heat source that can be activated when the temperatures get too low for the system to operate efficiently. The other solution is to add an auxiliary form of heat to the system which can either be in electric coil that is activated at very low temperatures, or a gas furnace that activates at low temperatures. The latter is referred to a “dual fuel” system.

There are other types of air source heat pumps which are commonly referred to as “mini splits.” Mini splits are basically an air source heat pump, but rather than having the system tied to a traditional furnace, they usually have a smaller self contained blower connected to an outside condenser via refrigerant lines. Mini splits are very common in most parts of the world because of their efficient cooling and heating capabilities and the fact that they can easily be retrofitted to any residence or building with relative ease. The downside is that most mini split indoor units (often called heads) don’t have any way to add auxiliary forms of heat such as heating elements or gas-burning forms of backup heat. Regardless, I do anticipate seeing more of these types of installations with backup heat such as baseboard electric which can be used seldomly when the temperatures dip into the sub double digits.

As for my system, it’s ducted and ductless mini split system with backup heat strips and temperature lockouts, all of which is controlled from my smartphone. I’d be happy to fill you in, it’s pretty cool stuff.

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