One Million New Jobs Means DC Needs More Housing

• October 28th 2011

by Shilpi Paul

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One million new jobs will be created in the DC area over the next 20 years, according to a study released on Thursday by George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis, which will result in some serious traffic congestion and the need for more housing.

The Washington Examiner highlighted the need to provide housing for all of these new workers to avoid a commuting nightmare.

“We need to think about housing as part of a larger economic development strategy,” said Lisa Sturtevant, a co-author of the report. “Many localities are proactive in seeking big companies to come to their county, such as SAIC, Hilton, etc. But part of their strategy needs to be that the workers who take those jobs need somewhere to live.” If communities don’t end up supplying housing where people work, the result could be catastrophic for the region, with $68 billion lost to the region’s economy and 700,000 commuters on the road every day, up from the current 230,000.

The report, which can be found here, estimates that the region as a whole will need to build as many as 731,000 new units to house the workers — 211,000 units in suburban Maryland, 392,000 in Northern Virginia and 122,000 in the District.

From the report:

Supplying this amount of housing will require the construction of about 38,000 net new housing units each year region-wide, an annual pace of construction never before seen in the region. Based on the housing need forecasts, more than two-thirds of owner occupied units need to be priced below $400,000. More than half of new renters will need housing with rents less than $1,250 a month.

The report was released on the same day that news came that the economy was growing at its fastest rate in a year.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/one_million_jobs_coming_to_the_area/4466.