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Lance George is the Housing Assistance Council’s director of research and information, an arm of that nonprofit which seeks to generate and improve access to reliable data about rural housing trends nationwide. Since 2020, a lot of airtime has been given to the rise of remote work and the subsequent relocation of urban professionals to smaller communities, as well as the complicated ramifications of the overheated housing market. I wanted to speak with George to get a better sense of how housing chaos has played out in rural spaces, and whether (or how) the major issues in small towns have actually changed, or actually stand apart from trends across the population-density-spectrum.

Enjoy our conversation about rural America’s loss of federally assisted affordable housing, the intersection of its growing racial diversity with increasing rental cost burdens, and the still-unknown effects of Covid-related demographic churn, below.

Olivia Weeks, The Daily Yonder: What was the outlook on rural housing issues prior to the start of the pandemic? What were the trends demanding most of your organization’s attention?

Lance George: Rural America and its housing issues have always been a microcosm of the nation’s larger housing conditions and dynamics. While there are some very unique elements to rural markets, housing affordability was probably the largest housing concern prior to the pandemic. Sometimes there is a misperception that housing costs are not as problematic in rural areas because housing prices are nominally lower. But pre-pandemic, some of the largest growth in housing cost burdens were in rural areas.

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A second major concern pre-pandemic – that was also closely tied to affordability problems – was (and continues to be) the loss of federally assisted affordable housing in rural communities. In many rural areas these properties are among the only affordable rental housing. But for various business and market related reasons these developments are leaving the affordable housing market. These homes also serve some of rural America’s most vulnerable residents. As an example,  approximately two thirds of residents of USDA’s affordable rental properties are elderly and their average incomes are just above $13,000. These are households who literally and figuratively cannot afford to be displaced. We also know this trend continued and accelerated through the pandemic as chronicled in HAC’s research and report – Rural America is Losing Affordable Rental Housing at an Alarming Rate.

DY: How’d your focus shift throughout the past two years? Did any issues become more dire or more obvious?

 

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