A housing needs assessment shows that the city of Hopkinsville has a more than 3,000 unit gap across rental and for-sale properties.
Bowen National Research, a real estate marketing and analysis consultant, presented its study this week focusing on the characteristics and trends of housing availability within Hopkinsville and Christian County.
Patrick Bowen, the organization’s president and owner, presented the data at meetings Thursday and Friday to city officials and community members. He said the study focused on what's going on in Hopkinsville, why people may or may not choose to live here and how its housing shortage compares to state and national levels.
“Ultimately, the community itself is going to have to decide its path, what kind of things it should do, could do, and is willing to do,” Bowen said. “Leaders of this community, but as well as the citizens, will have a significant input, I would think, on what your actual path is. But we give you some broad recommendations to at least start that conversation.”
Some of the housing trends in Hopkinsville mirror national trends. Housing demand is expected to grow locally and nationally in people between the ages of 35 and 44 and 65 and older.
One of the research group’s data points that demonstrated a need for more housing in Hopkinsville was the number of people who commute into the western Kentucky city for work. More than 14,000 work in Hopkinsville but live in other areas. This is nearly two-thirds of the people employed in the Christian County seat.
“Now, there's a lot of reasons why somebody would commute in and work in a community but not choose to live there,” Bowen said. “It could be taxes, schools, cultural, social, whatever it might be – but part of it is housing.”
One challenge in Christian County is the cost of land, a barrier Bowen said he does not hear as often in other communities.
Employers in the community were also asked about how housing impacts them. Just under half of employers in Hopkinsville said they were more likely to hire if housing issues were addressed. Additionally, some employers said housing issues made it difficult to retain employees.
The research also showed that Hopkinsville had a higher occupancy rate, nearly 98%, than what is typically found in healthy housing markets, which typically ranges from 94 to 96%.
“You want vacant units so that as people get married, have kids, people are relocating to the area, the jobs are changing, the income is climbing, the income is dropping, whatever the circumstances might be, you want housing so people can move around freely in the community, and so that you can attract people to come to the area,” Bowen said.
There were no vacancies in Hopkinsville in government subsidized and tax credit housing in the more than 30 multifamily properties surveyed by Bowen’s team. According to the detailed study, each property surveyed had a waitlist for units as they came available.
Housing affordability data showed that more than 4,200 households in Hopkinsville were cost burdened, meaning that more than 30% of their monthly income goes to housing costs. The study shows that about 1400 of those households meet the threshold for severely cost burdened – spending more than 50% of their monthly income on housing.
Bowen pointed out that households who are severely cost burdened and employees who commute into Hopkinsville are not spending as much of their budget on other things in the local economy because of their living situation.
The presentation ended with some recommendations for the community – including addressing blight and marketing the city to developers to help make their interests and desires known. He also noted the importance of having people advocate for more housing in their towns.
“Every community needs somebody leading housing efforts,” Bowen said. “That's probably the biggest shortfall for a lot of communities, is they just don't have anybody that's taking the lead, is the champion for housing, educating the public, educating the elected officials.”
The city has been working to address the housing shortages in Hopkinsville by bringing in more jobs and running government programs to address blight and empty lots.
Hopkinsville Mayor James R. Knight Jr. said the information in the study was good but shocking. He said having the housing stock needed will help make the community better.
“We have to start growing,” Knight said. “We have to start planning for this. How are we going to do it? How are we going to make it work? And we have to get moving on it. We cannot sit on our hands any longer. We have to go to work.”
