County needs 500 homes by 2035

FORT MADISON – A summary of results from a recently completed Lee County Housing Assessment shows the county is about 500 homes short of what it will need in the next 10 years.
Charlie Cowell, an urban planner with RDG Planning and Design, spoke with groups of county stakeholders on Monday in Keokuk, Fort Madison, and Donnellson about the results of a $50,000 study commissioned with the majority of funding coming from Koch Fertilizer in conjunction with Alliant Energy, MidAmerican Energy, and Lee County Economic Development Group.
The last assessment in the county was done in 2017.
Emily Benjamin said the assessment creates some baseline data for the county to use moving forward. She said Monday’s meetings can’t be the last meetings because community involvement is what will move the dial on progress over the next 10 years.
“We tasked RDG with helping us with some strategy. Don’t just give us a plan to sit on a shelf. Give us some strategies that we can make actionable and form task forces around,” Benjamin said.
Cowell said his data showed a median household income of $62,382, with a median rent at $835 in Fort Madison. The median home value in the county was $141,400.
He said the typical home for sale is currently on the market for about 120 days and the average home price listing is inching upward currently. The county, as of 2024, had 13,626 jobs in which 57% were taken by workers who live in the county, while 42% commuted from outside the county. The county had 14,819 employed residents.
Cowell said some recurring themes were observed in data they were able to cull from the county. One of those was that supply was tight across all segments from small homes to larger homes.
“From entry level people looking for homes, to quality rentals, to more adult housing, and everything in between,” he said.
“Which then goes into rising costs, aging housing stock, limited labor for making repairs. We heard a lot of people say they found something in their price range, but it wasn’t something they could move into because it needs a lot of work, it’s not the right size.
He also said interviews showed that people were finding the right size, but then it didn’t fit their price range on both owner and renter sides.
Workforce recruitment has also been a challenge with employers who were hiring employees who couldn’t find a place to live, or had to commute, or prolonged rental, or they just didn’t take the job.
He said people indicated they wanted to stay in the county and said recreation and quality of life were strengths in the community.

Challenges that were referenced in the survey included: aging housing, low labor participation rate; new construction being difficult; and high demolition needs.
Cowell said Keokuk has more homes that are in the demolition category than other parts of Fort Madison and said that is cost prohibitive in some circumstances, and if cities are paying the bill, it won’t move very fast. He said incentives in that area, along with incentives to rehab and make repairs could have quicker impact.
He said there has to be “meat on the bone” for property owners to make some improvements, as well as investors who look to build homes.
“Those homes can cost $300,000 just to build, and that home isn’t going to sell for that amount in some neighborhoods, so it makes it difficult to build spec homes,” he said.
Cowell said the county also needs homes for seniors and for young families where lower maintenance costs can be attractive to those on limited incomes or just getting started.
He said communities in the Midwest have gotten creative. Carroll, Iowa got together with area banks to share risk in speculative building to incentivize local investment to help builders have more confidence in building.
Lee County Supervisor Chuck Holmes asked Cowell why we aren’t seeing builders embark on smaller projects to help younger buyers with price points while keeping building costs down.
“Why aren’t developers building one-bedroom homes and two-bedroom homes with one bathroom? That seems to be a solution right there – make smaller homes and make it more affordable,” he said.
Cowell said you can get cheaper by doing smaller, but economies of labor don’t change much with smaller builds.
“You gotta pay the workers the same and you gotta get them on site no matter what the size is. So there are all these upfront costs regardless if it’s a 2,500 square foot house or a 1,200 square foot house,” he said.
He added that by adding larger homes, people will move out of the homes to a bigger option and free up smaller home inventory.
“This will only be successful if today is not our last meeting,” she said. “Now we have the information and later this week, we’ll publish this information. We want to give some time for people here today to give some feedback.”
She said focus groups will likely be assembled in September to take action on the recommendations from the study.