In Healdsburg, the priciest real estate market in Sonoma County, it’s probably not a surprise that housing tops the list of concerns for residents.
A new poll found that more than seven in 10 Healdsburg residents are worried about the lack of housing for working families.
Asked to rank the most pressing issues facing the city, housing costs and lack of housing options rose to the top in a city-commissioned poll conducted last month that also shows support for loosening the city’s growth management restrictions to create more homes for the middle class.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find a home under $600,000,” Mayor Tom Chambers said Thursday, adding that a married couple making $120,000, or about 160 percent of the Sonoma County median income, could not qualify to buy in Healdsburg, based on conventional lending guidelines.
A family of four making the median income of $76,900 can only afford a home costing $311,000, according to Healdsburg housing data. The median cost of housing in town and its immediate environs was just over $805,000 in 2015, according to The Press Democrat’s monthly housing report, compiled by Rick Laws, international vice president at the Pacific Union real estate firm. That topped the next-priciest area, the Sonoma Coast, at $740,000.
To continue reading this article by Clark Mason, go to: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/home/5179984-181/healdsburg-residents-worried-about-lack
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