Housing study finds large problems in Whitfield County but also reasons for hope

Published 8:35 pm Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Whitfield County has the 10th highest median wage of any county in Georgia, according to a study presented Tuesday night by Believe Greater Dalton. But it has only the 61st highest median family income.

“There’s a huge disparity between what our jobs pay and what our residents earn,” said Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce President Rob Bradham. “How can that be? The answer is that people who work here and earn on the higher end tend to live outside Whitfield County.”

Those numbers from a study of the local housing market done by Atlanta’s Bleakly Advisory Group align with information in a previous study for Believe Greater Dalton, which found that 62 percent of those who work in Whitfield County and earn $40,000 a year or more live outside Whitfield County.

Believe Greater Dalton is a public-private partnership of the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce and local governments formed last year that seeks to implement a five-year strategic plan for Dalton and Whitfield County. It is focused on six strategic areas to improve the community: educational outcomes, housing, entrepreneurship, economic development, downtown development and community pride.

Bradham said a survey the group did asked why people who have higher-paying jobs don’t live here.

“We can’t find housing we want” was the primary answer that came back, he said.

Bradham said one problem the Bleakly study found is that the housing stock here is aging. Just 18 percent of the county’s housing stock was built in the 21st century. Statewide, the average is 31 percent.

“This is not a good problem to have,” he said.

Bradham said another problem the study uncovered is that there is little “churn” in the market. Typically, when children grow up and leave the household, parents will downsize to a smaller place. That frees up their home to be sold to a family with children. That isn’t happening here because “empty nesters” can’t find a place they like.

The good news, Bradham said, is that the study shows that Whitfield County has jobs with the sort of income where people can afford new and higher-end housing. The issue, he said, is how to attract to Whitfield County the larger developers who specialize in that sort of housing.

Bradham said the area needs to “prime the pump.” If it can kick start a few such projects, it will show developers what is possible here.

He said there are a few ways to do that.

On the private side, he said, the area could look at starting a nonprofit housing developer, such as Chattanooga’s River City Company, which has been in existence for more than 30 years and has done a number of developments in downtown Chattanooga.

“We are already in conversations with individuals who have the financial wherewithal (to provide initial funding for such a nonprofit),” he said.

On the government side, he said, tax allocation districts (TADs) could be used to help developers defray the cost of new housing construction. In a TAD, the tax revenues on a property are basically frozen at what the property was worth when the TAD was created. Any additional revenue collected as a result of an increase in the value of the property will reimburse the owner for improvements.

Dalton has two TADs: one downtown and the other at the mall.

John Davis, a downtown business owner and a member of the Downtown Dalton Development Authority board, said he believes it’s only a matter of time before someone uses the downtown TAD to help fund new apartments.

“There’s a lot going on downtown, a lot of activity we didn’t have even just a few years ago,” he said. “People want to be closer to downtown, and the more people we have living and shopping in downtown, the more that will be going on.”

Whitfield County does not have the ability to create TADs. Whitfield County voters rejected a TAD measure four years ago.

“I supported that measure,” said county Board of Commissioners Chairman Lynn Laughter. “I believe commissioners would be willing to put it before the voters again. But we’ll have to do a better job of explaining it. I’m afraid that people just saw the word ‘tax.'”

Bradham said local governments could encourage the building of multifamily units by providing developers with tax abatements as they do with industrial developments.

“If you want these ideas to be put into place, you need to contact your City Council members and your commissioners and tell them that we need to do something new, something that may be a little risky,” said Dalton Mayor Dennis Mock.

The full housing study should be posted today at www.believegreaterdalton.com.