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The 'missing middle:' Exurban counties like Loudoun, Prince William see most of the housing boom, while D.C. falls behind

Developers have been too focused on single-family homes, report says, leaving the D.C. region in a housing crunch.
Credit: WUSA9

WASHINGTON -- The D.C. region’s housing boom hasn’t kept up with housing demand in part because it’s generated too many single-family homes too far away from the urban core, according to a new report on the health of the DMV’s housing market.

The 2019 State of the Capital Region: Housing Growth and Affordability report was released Wednesday by researchers from the Brookings Institution, Fannie Mae and Georgetown and George Washington universities.

The report found that while the region has added approximately 415,000 new housing units since 2000, that housing growth has been outstripped by population growth over the same period.

Additionally, more of that housing growth has been located in exurban areas – like Loudoun, Prince William and Frederick counties – than in suburban and urban areas combined. And the new housing units in those areas tend to be single-family dwellings.

Credit: Jordan Fischer
A new report by the Center for Washington Area Studies suggests part of the D.C. region's housing crunch is caused by too many single-family homes.

In fact, across the entire region, two-thirds of all new housing units built since 2000 are single-family homes. This has caused a shortage in medium-sized multifamily housing – apartment buildings with 2-19 units per building – that the report calls the “missing middle.”

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The result of all of this has been consistently rising housing costs – not something that will surprise anyone who’s spent time in the area.

The report suggests that jurisdictions could combat the upward trend by focusing on preserving the affordability of existing multifamily apartment buildings, but otherwise does not offer detailed suggestions for how to address the issue.

In D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has proposed a new $20 million fund to preserve “workforce housing” for individuals and families at moderate income levels. Department of Housing and Community Development Director Polly Donaldson told WUSA9 that the agency believes the leverage fund would be able to create 1,000 new units of housing with the $20 million in seed money the mayor has asked for.

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