What are housing options in Jackson for future BlueOval workers?

After Ford Motor Company announced in 2021 that West Tennessee would be home to its historic $5.6 billion Blue Oval City project, conversations and plans began for how Jackson was going to best accommodate the inherent growth, particularly in the realm of housing.

The Blue Oval mega site in Stanton is centrally located at an almost halfway point between Jackson and Memphis, both of which are expected to gain a significant influx of new residents with the nearly 6,000 jobs the site will create.

In March of 2023, the Jackson Chamber of Commerce concluded a comprehensive housing market study detailing an expected 20% growth of the Jackson-Madison County area as Blue Oval employees begin to make their way to West Tennessee.

With the unprecedented nature of economic and development potential as a result of Blue Oval, housing units are needed at a far faster rate than in decades prior.

Despite Blue Oval's expectancy to be fully staffed and operational by 2026, actions to address how Jackson will measure up to the housing market are happening now.

Setting Jackson apart

Though Jackson provides a small-town feel in a way that a metropolitan city like Memphis cannot not, smaller cities on the outskirts of East Memphis have the potential to give Jackson the most competition in the housing sphere.

For employees and their families who opt out of rural living, smaller towns are feeling the pressure to accommodate the real estate demand.

The owner of Blue Suede Realty in Jackson, Julie Holt explained that Memphis-adjacent cities like Arlington and Lakeland are "five years ahead of us."

"We have an opportunity for growth here, but if we don't get certain things right, then it's going to go to Memphis," Holt said, noting that Madison County is "one of the healthiest real estate markets in Tennessee."

Central West Tennessee Association of Realtors CEO Brent Ward explained that because the Blue Oval plant is still under construction, the majority of Ford employees currently looking for housing options are executives.

"Now where your average, daily worker is going to live, that's another ball game but we're working on that as well too with all the apartment complexes coming up," Ward said. "Builders are building as fast as they can get materials and get them in the ground and I think that's just going to continue."

Building housing versus building affordable housing

In addition to current rent prices going up for existing residents, Holt added that the city's ability to build new housing developments will be gridlocked with the ability to make them affordable as the cost of supplies continues to rise.

"If somebody built something that was considered affordable, their cost to build it now is through the roof," Holt said.

Though affordability is subjective as the cost of living increases, she added that Jackson is still not only one of the most cost-friendly places to live in West Tennessee, but nationwide. Suggesting that for those seeking an "affordable" option, the best bet would be to look for a home that is "structurally sound, but needs love."

The Greater Jackson Chamber's housing study found that the current average price of listed homes is nearly 20% higher than the price of year-to-date home sales from 2022.

Similarly, Ward characterized the idea of affordable housing as almost being an "oxymoron."

"I think from a real estate group standpoint, mortgage people, anything that has to do with real estate period, we have got to change our minds about what we consider to be affordable housing now because affordable housing has changed," he said. "It's just changing your mindset to go along with the future that's coming."

Home median prices by county

As of August, the "median sold home price" in Madison County was $287,900, which is slightly higher than the same time last year. In August 2022, the median sold price for Madison County was $232,500, according to Central West Tennessee Association of Realtors.

In Jackson, the median sold price was $294,900 in August.

Median Sold Price in region as of August 2023:

Madison: $287,900

Gibson: $189,900

Dyer: $203,950

Henderson: $211,000

Haywood: $280,000

Decatur: $161,000

Crockett: $200,300

Weakley: $162,500

Carroll: $150,000

Note: Information compiled by Central West Tennessee Association of Realtors

Realtor Alan Castleman of Hickman Realty added that despite the cost of building materials, he believes that the developments currently under construction will have a "good mix of price ranges," meaning ranges that come by putting new buildings on the ground as inexpensively as possible.

"We would all love to build $150,000 homes. The builders over the last two years have been shrinking the size of the homes to a very small point and are not able to get to that number," he said. "So if somebody says 'are we building $150,000 homes' just because we know that's affordable, the answer is no. But I think the developers and builders are doing the best they can to put the most affordable solutions that are possible in this environment on the ground."

How on track is Jackson to accommodate the housing market?

Castleman estimates that there are approximately a thousand new doors across new apartment complex developments. Adding that average building permits for single-family homes total between 500 and 600 units per year, putting Jackson in the right direction for maximizing growth.

"The city has the infrastructure in place to build what we need for this growth," he said. "A lot of communities, they don't have the infrastructure. So Jackson is one step ahead of all these other smaller communities because to be able to build apartment complexes and new neighborhoods they've got to first, build the infrastructure."

This notion is also backed by findings from the chamber's housing market study.

"The Jackson housing market is positioned to attract a large percentage of the workers at BlueOvalCity, particularly in the early years of development and start-up," according to the study. "While residential development in much of the immediate area surrounding BlueOval City is constrained by a lack of infrastructure,Jackson is better prepared for growth."

City of Jackson Planning Director Stan Pilant echoed this sentiment, explaining the extent of Jackson's building capacity allows an advantage over other rural cities that lack things like fiberoptic Internet, telecommunication and utility sources.

"The infrastructure is already present so I feel like we're in a position to meet these demands," he said.

Conversations in the Planning Department have prompted strategizing how Jackson is going to get creative with housing options. Amending zoning laws to allow for housing in commercial areas and amending provisions to Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) that are commonly used for AirBnB stays are some of the concerted efforts the city is making to meet the housing demand.

"It's all hands on deck for us. We're looking at every way that we can provide housing," Pilant said. "Looking at creative ways and ways that traditionally we haven't offered housing because it's going to take all those forms to really meet the demands that are coming."

As it currently stands in September of 2023, Jackson does not have the necessary housing to accommodate the proposed demand, but because the Blue Oval mega site is still under construction and expected capacity is not scheduled to be reached until 2026, time remains for both the city and county to prepare for the influx of new residents.

This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: What are housing options in Jackson for future BlueOval workers?