Housing costs continue to rise with the average fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Virginia at more than $1,500 per month. Seniors and those on a fixed income seem to face the greatest challenges when it comes to affordability.
The median home price sale in Virginia was $415,000 in August – an increase of $60,000, or 16.9 percent from 2021, according to the Virginia Association of Realtors.
To afford these costs, a household must earn approximately $5,250 per month or more than $60,000 annually.
Approximately 905,000 households in Virginia – both owners and renters – were housing cost burdened in 2019, spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities, according to data from Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission. In some cases, households were spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing.
Virginians are not alone in the housing crisis. In addition to affordability, there is also shortage of housing across the United States. From 2000 to 2015, the U.S. fell 7.3 million homes short of meeting housing demand.
Legislation led by U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) would provide a competitive grant program to help states and localities increase housing supply, improve housing affordability and reduce barriers to new housing development while avoiding the displacement of current residents. The Housing Supply and Affordability Act grant program would be administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.
Companion legislation in the House of Representatives is led by Reps. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Joyce Beatty (D-OH).
Despite bipartisan support for the legislation, it has stalled in both chambers as legislators appear to wait out the results of the upcoming presidential election.
U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democratic candidate for Virginia’s governor in 2025, has also backed the legislation.
“Virginians’ paychecks are being stretched thin as housing prices and rent are on the rise. Across our communities, I hear from Virginians who are struggling to find affordable rental housing or realize their dream of owning their own home,” said Spanberger.
“This bipartisan legislation would provide added support at the ground level — helping individual communities create and implement plans to increase the supply of affordable housing available, remove barriers to homeownership and meet the unique needs of their neighbors.”
The housing crisis: A major issue in the presidential election
A Gallup poll from earlier this year found the cost of owning or renting a home as the second most important financial issue for families, and with presidential candidates making promises to voters, there is hope that with the election, there may be light at the end of the tunnel for consumers.
“Housing is too expensive, and we need to increase the housing supply,” Democratic Presidential nominee and current Vice President Kamala Harris said this week on a podcast.
Her “opportunity economy” platform aims to help build more than 3 million homes and incentivize local governments and builders to spur the construction of starter homes. Her plan also includes a tax credit for first-time homeowners and wants to outlaw new forms of price fixing by corporate landlords.
“I know what homeownership means, and sadly right now it is out of reach for far too many American families,” Harris said.
The Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump has blamed housing costs on immigrants saying that securing the border would solve the crisis. Trump has also pledged to open up tracks of federal land for housing construction.
However, experts argue that without immigrant labor, new construction may slow.
As a former real estate developer, Trump has spoken out against low-income housing because it brings down property values in neighborhoods.
Waynesboro: Housing affordability and availability
In Waynesboro, a growing number of low-income residents are being evicted from rental apartments and homes to allow owners to raise rents.
Working-class residents feel left behind, as previously reported by AFP.
“Jobs aren’t increasing their wages, but rent is rising fast,” one woman recently told AFP. “People are so money hungry. It’s insane seeing $1500, $1875 for a two-bedroom. Being a single parent, you can’t make these rent prices unless you work two full-time jobs.”
She was evicted from her rental home when new owners bought the home and intended to raise the rent from $655 to $1,500 per month.
More than 1,600 units are being built in Waynesboro and are currently in different phases of planning and construction.
“All these new apartments being built, houses, but no one can keep up the payments each month,” she said. “I really feel like that’s why a lot of these working people just give up. You will never be able to pay your rent even if you hand over your whole check.”
She told AFP on Saturday that her last day at her home of more than a decade was Sept. 30. She’s temporarily staying with a co-worker.
“Everywhere I look, the prices are so insane,” she said. “I’ve contacted housing, even being homeless and with children, it’s at least a 12-month wait.”
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Crystal Graham
