CMBA staff joined more than 70 stakeholders at the Sherburne County Housing Study Action Forum held Tuesday, August 26th in Elk River.  Two years ago, CMBA co-sponsored the Sherburne County Housing Summit, and a year ago, Sherburne County completed a Comprehensive Housing Needs Analysis with Maxfield Research.

The 2023 summit looked at housing needs and the reasons Minnesota homes are so much more expensive to build than in neighboring states.  The 2024 Maxfield study looked at future housing needs from 2026-2030.  This year's forum was meant to engage stakeholders, including city staff, city council members, township supervisors, developers and various housing advocates in unpacking the study and thinking about next steps.

The Maxfield study shows new single-family home construction in Sherburne County remained relatively steady through COVID as an average of 472 single-family homes were built each year from 2017 to 2021. However, high inflation and the increase in mortgage rates, coupled with higher housing costs, slowed for-sale new home construction by almost half in 2022 and 2023. Based on recent lot absorption and the newly platted subdivisions in the county, the current lot supply is not adequate -- currently at less than a two-year supply (a three- to five-year supply is recommended).  Another finding discussed in the August forum is that the northwest submarket (the portion of south St. Cloud included in Sherburne County) currently has enough multi-family housing.  The challenge is that much of it is aging and in need of upkeep or replacement.

Participants in the August forum worked through exercises meant to build better partnerships, and think about where to focus new housing initiatives to meet the needs of the various Sherburne County submarkets.  Sherburne County is surveying participants about the forum, and plans to follow-up with them on a regular basis to see how they are getting along with stated housing goals described in their forum "Exit Tickets".

For more information, contact Sherburne County Economic Development Director, Brian Fleming, 763-765-3014, brian.fleming@co.sherburne.mn.us, or CMBA Government Affairs, Steve Gottwalt, 952-923-5265, steve@cmbaonline.org.

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