The solution to gridlock is affordable housing near jobs

Transportation experts are tearing their hair out trying to figure out how to fix Puget Sound gridlock. But if they really want to improve transportation, they should focus on housing.

There are just too many people trying to drive between home and their jobs each day. There isn't enough tax money in the world to pave our way out of this problem, especially with our population growing by a million each decade.

Instead of trying to deal with the symptoms, I suggest we address the cause: too few affordable home choices near where people work. That's something that we can fix — with a little help from the Legislature.

Home prices throughout our state continue to rise month after month. Wages, however, do not. The result is a huge gap between typical home prices and what typical families can afford. The Center for Real Estate Research at Washington State University, which tracks the gap with its "Housing Affordability Index," shows home affordability in Washington at a 15-year low. The gap is particularly wide for first-time home buyers, who, according to the index, could afford the local median-price standard only if they were living in Benton or Adams counties.

What's a middle-wage family to do? Hit the highway and drive to find an acceptable home you can afford. Between 2000 and 2005, 67,000 people moved from King County to Pierce County. Another 14,720 Pierce residents moved south to Thurston County during the same period.

People who migrate, however, don't necessarily leave their jobs. In 2005, 15,000 Thurston County residents commuted daily to Pierce County. About 7,200 Thurston County residents commuted to King County.

The outsourcing of homes works the same way between King County and Snohomish County. More than four in 10 Snohomish County residents commute to King County each day for work.

This bumper-to-bumper "solution" to housing is clogging our highways, spewing pollution into the air, and trapping employees in vehicles when most would rather be home with their families. There's a smarter alternative: Provide more home choices near employment centers.

This seemingly simple solution won't happen without legislative action because government decisions have limited the home choices available near employment centers. Government determines how, where and the degree to which land may be used — if it may be used at all.

Only government issues building permits. Only government makes plans that determine where and what sort of homes may be constructed. These decisions also have helped drive up the price of homes. Most of the costs associated with building a home have remained flat over the past several years; the price of land has risen and that's the only factor under the direct control of government.

By thinking more precisely about housing needs and more creatively about how to meet those needs, government can put home ownership back within reach of middle-income families. Using high-quality design, construction, materials and landscaping, communities can provide homes that fit seamlessly into existing neighborhoods — and into the budget of typical families. We know this is a strategy that works, because in the communities that have tried it, home buyers, builders and neighbors are happy.

State lawmakers are now considering legislation that ensures communities plan more effectively for home choices as more people move here to live and work. They're also working on new policies to help communities pay for roads that connect new homes to nearby workplaces. One strategy is to make some local transportation grants contingent upon whether a project will help a community accommodate the needs of its growing population.

The price for ignoring the relationships among transportation, employment and housing needs is degradation of transportation, environmental and economic resources, which threatens everyone's quality of life. While policymakers struggle to find a way to pay for more roads, poor growth planning is forcing more middle-income families onto the highways, where they suffer long commutes to live in a home that fits the family and the budget.

By thinking and planning more precisely and more creatively, we can get commuters off the roads and back into the communities where they work and, by all rights, should be able to afford to live.

Steve Francks is the chief executive officer of the Washington Realtors.