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At Wednesday’s Keweenaw Alliance Breakfast, a panel of investor Derek Bradway, and agents Gretchen Janssen and Kristine Weidner addressed challenges in the housing market. Weidner said the Keweenaw had seen three consecutive years of low supply and the issue is not yet alleviating. In fact, 2021 may be the worst yet of the current cycle.
Weidner and Bradway said the issue hit Houghton and Hancock first, but its impact has been very selective. It has eaten away at the supply of affordable homes available for ownership or rent, which the cities never boasted a ton of. Availability of a variety of municipal services acts as a boon to property values. As the first wave of residents got pinched, they began to move out to other municipalities on the M-26 and US-41 corridor. Weidner says a region is forming.
Bradway says that locals tend to be more sensitive to sticker shock, but even students at Michigan Tech will be affected shortly if the price appreciation and supply shortage trends do not abate soon. All members of the panel said that they have heard from employers who lost out on potential job hires due to the lack of available housing.
