Eastern Washington University this week reported mixed economic news for Spokane County residents.
Eastern’s Institute for Public Policy and Economics says data from the Census Bureau and other sources show income levels are up since just before the pandemic, but so are housing costs.
The Spokane County Trends Blog reports median household income increased from about $60,000 to $69,000 between 2019 and 2022. That’s a sizable increase, but Jones, the director of EWU’s institute, reports it’s still below the national and Washington state levels.
On the housing side, EWU’s blog reports that, in 2022, 26% of renters spent a least half of their income on housing. More than half, 54%, spent at least 30-percent on housing costs.
“In both cases, whether it was the 30% threshold or the very astonishing 50% threshold, that the numbers of renters in that situation had gone up substantially from pre-pandemic 2019,” Jones said.
“It’s pretty clear that housing costs have risen, whether it’s single family or rental costs, much faster than income has. The rates that we see now for either the 30% or 50% threshold are considerably higher than the U.S. and the state of Washington,” he said.
For people looking to buy homes, Jones says the data show home prices peaked in 2022 at $468,000. In the fourth quarter of 2023, he says that figure fell to $415,000.
“We’re still considerably below the state average for resale prices,” Jones said. “But Spokane has always prided itself as being a relatively good buy for housing and we can safely say that that argument has really disappeared.”
Jones says, before the pandemic, Spokane’s home prices hovered around $300,000 and the affordability level was much higher. The situation is much different today.
