Housing starts on the rise in the Mid-Columbia Basin

Nation-wide, new home construction is up about 8%. In the Tri-Cities it's up about 21% during the past 12 months compared to last year.

"In every jurisdiction, everybody is up this year except West Richland, but it's a pretty substantial increase from where we've been," says Jeff Losey, Executive Director of Home Builders Association Tri-Cities.

With a shortage of housing available in the Tri-Cities, the growth has the potential to continue growing, though that growth is likely to be tempered by other forces in the market. One key obstacle, is the lack of skilled workers to build homes.

"It's been plaguing the industry since 2008, when the house market crashed. Although we did not break as far as everybody else did, sub-contractors left the industry to do other things when it did slow down, and they haven't come back," Losey said. "A lot of our push right now is to get those next generation framers, carpenters, and craftsmen."

To do that, his agency is working with Columbia Basin College and Tri-Tech's construction programs.

But a short-handed workforce isn't the only problem. As building grows, available land inventory isn't keeping up. It takes time to annex land, extend utilities, and develop a construction plan.

"If you're a custom home builder and you don't already have land to build, you're pretty much out of luck right now," Losey said. "It's not going to be easy to fix in the next year or two. We're probably still 2 to 3 years out before land availability loosens up."