BUILD IT. THEY WILL COME.
A commuter study performed around five years ago confirmed what Pittsburg city officials feared to be true: most people who work in Pittsburg live somewhere else.
“They’re in Carl Junction, Joplin, Fort Scott, Girard,” said Quentin Holmes, Housing and Community Development Director for the City of Pittsburg. “And when you ask them why they don’t live in Pittsburg, their answers are all the same. Pittsburg lacks adequate housing.”
“Well,” he said, “we used to.”
With several new housing developments under construction, Pittsburg’s housing landscape changed seemingly overnight. Four new neighborhoods and several Pittsburg Land Bank projects are giving current residents and those who don’t currently live in Pitt a variety of new housing options.
Many of the new homes have already sold.
“It’s really quite something to see all of this work happening at the same time,” Holmes said. “You drive by these developments, and you can see Pittsburg growing home by home.”
The four major housing developments underway are Creekside East, Payton’s Hamlet, Silverback Landing, and the Villas at Creekside. Holmes said the price range for the new houses range from $220,000 up to $400,000.
Many of the new homes have already sold.
“The most encouraging thing about this is that the people who are already buying these homes are people who don’t currently live here,” Holmes said. “These are people who are choosing to move to Pittsburg, and that’s exactly what we hoped to see when we started this push for more housing.”
“We’re definitely not done growing our housing market”
According to the City of Pittsburg, the population in Pittsburg increased by 2.4 percent in 2020, up 475 people since 2019. That news comes on the heels of another report from data analytics company Unacast, which reported Pittsburg has gained more than 878 residents since March of 2020.
Holmes said those numbers will continue to go up, as will the need for even more housing.
“We’re definitely not done growing our housing market,” he said. “We’re not even close to the amount of new housing we need.”
Holmes said the next big push in the housing sector will be to increase the number of adequate, quality housing in the $100,000 to $150,000 price range.
“We need more options for people who are just starting out and looking to buy their first home,” he said. “There’s a huge gap there right now, and it’s something we’re definitely focusing on.”