Norton wrong on Jackson housing situation

At a recent Chamber event, Northeast Georgia Real Estate mogul Frank Norton made some remarks about Jackson County’s housing situation that I question.

Essentially, Norton made the argument that Jackson County has too many “expensive” homes and not enough homes under $150,000.

I disagree with that analysis. A MLS search indicates that there are 257 houses in Jackson County listed at $150,000 or less. Sounds like a lot to me.

There are another 319 listings of between $150,000 and $250,000 and most of those, 205, are under $200,000.

As for a dearth of over $250,000 priced homes, current listings show 189 with many of those concentrated in a handful of high-dollar residential developments.

The other part of this, however, are the subtle political and demographic issues at play.

For decades, Jackson County existed in the backwater of development, a rural, poor county. There were few subdivisions in Jackson County until the mid-1980s. Trailers and trailer parks were the main housing choice. Few people took the risk of building more expensive homes on land that could easily be surrounded by cheap housing junk.

But as the county began to lure industrial development over the last 25 years, the housing market began to develop. At first, there were large lot subdivisions, then as land prices began to soar, small lot developments became common.

In that period, county leaders, along with many town leaders, began to put minimum house sizes in place and other requirements that pushed up the cost of housing. While some of that was done by leaders with a personal interest (real estate), the general idea was this: Jackson County has done its time as a poor housing backwater; now we need to have more choices and access to higher quality housing.

A lot of developers agreed and began to build not just cheap housing, but also higher end executive homes. Access to I-85 in West Jackson and the city school system’s reputation in Jefferson drove that trend, bringing in not just young starter families, but also more middle-aged, highly educated families.

The other big impact were mid-level professionals who were leaving Gwinnett County, in part because of traffic, partly because they wanted to live in a more rural setting and partly because of changing demographics in Gwinnett and that trend’s impact on some Gwinnett schools.

The result of all that was the boom of a real housing mix in Jackson County. It wasn’t all just cheap junk any more as it had been for so many years.

Overall, that has been good for the county. While local governments shouldn’t seek to artificially inflate housing prices with excessive regulation (some have tried that), the local community does have a long-term interest in making sure its stable of housing is varied in price and won’t endanger property values.

Of course, local governments also have a financial interest in seeking to have a mix of housing. While a county might lure a flood of people with cheap houses, that usually costs everyone more. It fills up the schools and taxes other county (or city) infrastructure in ways that never pay for themselves.

The key to all of this is balance. Frankly, I don’t believe that Jackson County’s housing is out of balance to the extent Norton pontificated about.

The median housing price earlier this year was around $170,000 in Jackson County. That’s down from the peak of the boom cycle when the median price was $220,000 in the second quarter of 2007. (And where was Norton when those houses were being built? I don’t remember him complaining about high house prices when they were selling like hotcakes.)

Jackson County and its towns could do as Norton’s thesis suggests; lower minimum housing sizes, kill some subdivision regulations and create an environment of cheap houses. In fact, if Norton and his fellow developers thought they could sell a lot of $150,000 houses right now, they’d put their money where their theories are and they’d be building them.

The local real estate market will eventually find its own level and housing prices will self-correct. If there are too many expensive houses here, the market will show that and lower-priced housing will prevail.

But at least the Jackson County housing market today has a range of choices, is higher quality overall and isn’t stuck in the era of cheaper-is-better mentality.

What’s really galling, however, is for an out-of-town real estate guy to lecture Jackson County by saying its “housing expectations have been too high.”

Too high for whom? Why shouldn’t Jackson County seek to have a mix of housing, including some that lures highly-educated professionals to the community?

What’s wrong with that?

Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.