New townhouses, like these off Gordon Road in Spotsylvania, are going up, but affordable housing still remains a problem for many residents in the fast-growing Fredericksburg area. van

Affordable housing is in short supply in the Fredericksburg area, but a new group hopes to address the need.

By JANET MARSHALL

Date published: 8/10/2003

Affordable housing is hard to find

Chrystie Logan has jumped through all the hoops. She's taken a class on first-time home-buying. She's whittled down her debt. She's filled out forms, gone to meetings--everything to qualify for a home loan and for closing and down-payment assistance.

There's just one hitch: Each time she finds an affordable house for sale in Fredericksburg, someone snatches it up first.

"It's like a race," said Logan, a seamstress and single mom who pays $835 a month for an apartment in the city. "Whoever gets there first, that's who gets the house."

The supply of low-priced homes doesn't come close to meeting the demand in the Fredericksburg area, especially in the city.

Of the more than 1,000 area homes listed for sale in a June real-estate report, just 49 cost less than $120,000, which is the most Logan can spend.

"It's ridiculous," said Logan, a college graduate whose annual income is about $26,000. "Fredericksburg doesn't have enough [affordable] single-family homes."

A new committee formed by the Rappahannock United Way is looking at ways to address the dearth of affordable homes, both houses and rental properties.

"This is a crisis," said committee member Gail Penman, president of the Fredericksburg Area Association of Realtors. "It's not something where we can look the other way and say, 'It's not happening in Fredericksburg.'"

The median selling price for homes in the area was $215,500 in June, according to Bethesda-based Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, a real-estate network. It takes a yearly income of about $53,000 to afford a house at that price, according to bankrate.com, an online clearinghouse of mortgage and financial information.

Those who can afford it often commute to well-paying jobs in Washington, where salaries--and home prices--are higher. Stafford and Spotsylvania counties are home to thousands of people who drive up Interstate 95 each morning to work.

Even so, fewer than half the households in the Fredericksburg area make more than $50,000 a year, according to the 2000 Census.

"You can spend four or five years in college and still not be able to earn a sufficient amount to afford a house," said Loraine Lemoine, social services director in Spotsylvania.

Even affording rent can be tough. Penman said rents in North Stafford, where she works, often reach $800 for an apartment. They're usually cheaper in other parts of the region.

Date published: 8/10/2003