Duluth feels the struggles of the affordable housing crisis

If you have been looking for housing in Duluth you know how hard it can be as suitable affordable housing can be hard to come across.

Duluth’s ShipRock management says their vacancies have been extremely low due to people taking anything they can get. Property Manager Tyler Bystedt says, “Folks are really, you know, having a hard time finding suitable housing."

The market has been madness Bystedt says, "Sometimes folks will see a listing and by the time they call it already has been rented."

A UMD student saying their experience has been, “difficult to say the least.” Stating one bedrooms units are hard to come by two bedrooms are out of their price range and as a college student credit checks and references are hard to provide.

RELATED STORIES: On Thursday, City officials announced plans for a Housing Trust Fund and you can watch the full press conference here.

And for real estate this big boom has been pretty historic. "The housing market in general has been as strong as we’ve ever seen it, we’ve been in operating for over thirteen years and it’s always been a strong market but it feels like the past twelve months have really picked up”, says Bystedt.

For ShipRock management they’ve seen the trends in their vacancies. Tyler says, "We track our vacancy rates weekly and it’s not uncommon for us to be under 1% but for the last twelve months or so we’ve hit under half a percent -half of 1% several times. Which is really unprecedented for us."

And usually right now in the fall, the market slows down… But this year it’s still going on strong. Bystedt says, "Historically fall and winter have been slower months for us but this fall has been off to a very strong start. But there does need to be more units built… so it’s a very interesting time and we’ll see what the next twelve months bring.”