By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
As efforts to curb the ongoing housing shortage in Ellis County continue, one of the most discussed projects — the Heart of America Corp. housing project at 22nd and Wheatland — is ready to celebrate a major milestone, with some of the first houses in the development nearing completion.
But even as the first homes are sold and become occupied, the next stage in the development is also moving forward.
“If anybody's been out by that development (east of NCK Tech), they've seen the activity,” Grow Hays Executive Director Doug Williams said. “There's currently 10 homes under construction.”
He said that he believed the first houses could be completed within 30 days.
Shortly after the first homes are completed, two of the four contractors that have committed to building homes in the development will begin construction on 14 more homes.
“And so that'll put us at 24 out of the first 36 lots that were in phase one,” Williams said. “And we're not even through the first three months of this year.”
And plans to roll into the next phase are already shaping up.
“Heart of America, which is a not-for-profit developer in Hays, has purchased the 21 acres to the north of this development, and has committed to go ahead and start construction, hopefully this summer, of the next cul de sac, which will be 18 lots.”
The rapid-fire moves are needed, Williams said in an effort to bring much-needed homes to the market.
“I looked a while back, and there were nine total homes on the market in Hays, two in Ellis and one in Victoria,” Williams said. “And of those ... four were under $499,000. Well, that's not an acceptable situation at all. We're not going to get companies to move here, or people who want to relocate to move here and enter our workforce, if we don't have any place for him to live. So we’ve got to get that fixed and get more choice out there for people.”
But getting needed houses to the market is not going to be a quick process, he said.
“What we're trying to do is get ahead of this situation, instead of playing catchup all the time,” Williams said. “Unfortunately, in our community, over the last 10 or 12 years, we haven't built as many houses as we need to have. And that puts us behind the eight-ball on this stuff. So, we're playing catch up.”
Having the infrastructure in place can be instrumental in moving the project forward quickly, he said.
“We're going to try and get ahead of it a little bit,” Williams said. “It takes some time to get streets and sewer and water and that kind of thing in and, if we if we are able to start this summer, it will be the first of the year before that infrastructure is all in and ready for homes to be constructed on those lots.”
“We're going to get started with those 18 sometime next summer,” he continued. “And then we're going to start platting that next 21 acres to the north, for the additional expansion after that, trying to look two, three, four or five years down the line. But at this pace, I could see that development being built out in two or three years, which would be terrific.”
He said with the price point for each home under $225,000, the houses are filling the most urgent need in the county — and are being sold long before they are constructed.
“While we can argue all day long about what's affordable, these certainly are appealing to a broad sector here,” Williams said. “And the buyers are viewing them as affordable relative to other things on the market.”
And more inventory on the market can help with another pressing issue facing Ellis County — insufficient workforce.
“That's going to help us attract people to our community help that workforce recruitment, and as well as keeping people here,” Williams said.
Having the extra housing on the market is also likely to drive down housing costs.
“Supply and demand,” Williams said. “It's that basic rule of economics. And right now, we have very little supply and high demand, and it's forcing prices up. The only way you're going to change that is to increase the supply or decrease the demand.”
And decreasing demand is not desirable, he said.
“That's not the way we want to have it happen,” Williams said. “But certainly, if they raise interest rates, that will decrease demand a little bit.”
Supply chain issues have also wreaked havoc on the price of construction, which is also a cost driver in the housing market.
“The contractors that we have building out there are struggling with material prices. They're all over the board,” Williams said. “They don't really know where they stand. They think they know where they're going to be when the smoke clears, but until they actually get the house done, they don't know exactly where they're at on it.”
But when there is a demand, someone will find a way to create supply and so, he said, he is grateful for the work the contractors are putting in.
“Kudos to these guys who are building the houses out there,” Williams said. “They recognize a need and they're filling it. So that's terrific.”
