City Releases Annual Housing Indicator Report

DULUTH, MINN. — The Annual Housing Indicator Report for the City of Duluth was released and it shows overall things have not considerably changed in the last year.

Duluth’s population is just about the same as it has been over the past three decades, nearly 87,000 people.

The city has added 176 net housing units in 2022, which includes 167 multi-family rental units and 34 single-family homes.

The need for additional housing has increased significantly over the past decade. This is especially true in the affordable housing sector. The city is very aware of the housing shortage and is working on the problem.

“I mean I think we just need to deal with the pent-up demand,” said Thersa  Bajd, the Senior Housing Developer for Duluth. “We have to build our way out of this problem, it’s a math problem, it really is. It’s building enough units and getting them there and then to build the units is a math problem on how to make the finances work. It’s really expensive to build, it’s very expensive to rehab. We’ve had some really neat rehab, like the former county jail and we do a historic rehab that’s expensive. But there is an opportunity downtown to do some conversion – old office buildings after the pandemic that might be able to be used. Whether it’s for mixed-use and residential or purely residential and then keep showing up for construction across all levels of affordability.”

Housing in Duluth is old. 50% of the homes were built prior to 1950. The city is working with major employers, other cities, the county, and others to try to find ways to meet the growing demands of housing at all levels.