Lack of Available Housing Affects Military Families at JBLM

December 14, 2020

A recent survey conducted by the South Sound Military Community Partnership shows the housing challenges facing service members and their families at Joint Base Lewis-McCord in Washington State.

The U.S. Army asks its service members to live within a 30-minute commute of their installation; at JBLM 65 percent reported that they lived within this commuting distance.

“The inventory in this market is so extremely low that you have to have five or six thousand dollars saved to pay closing costs in order to be competitive,” said Heather Redal, a local realtor who helps serve the JBLM community to the News Tribune. “I’ve had families get outbid on six different properties before they finally win a seventh.”

Based on the survey, The South Sound Military Community Partnership estimates 113,000 new housing units need to be constructed by 2040 to keep up with population growth.

Furthermore, the study recommends reinstituting JBLM’s rental partnership program which assists service members to negotiate a lower cost on properties in exchange for marketing to service members and direct rental payments. The program was paused in June 2020 due to staffing shortages.

Read the South Sound Military Community Partnership’s housing survey here.

Photo By Spc. Reese Von Rogatsz

December 14, 2020

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