A large majority of Arcata residents think that the city’s housing is too expensive, according to the results of a recently completed survey. 

City Hall opened up a housing-focused survey this month that assessed residents’ feelings about the city’s housing stock and availability, what kinds of housing Arcata could use more of and what it needs to improve on. The results were published last week and were sent to the city council and the city’s staff.

Almost four-fifths of the 191 local respondents to the survey — 77% — said that Arcata’s housing isn’t affordable. Around 40% said that there wasn’t enough housing to rent and that there also aren’t enough homes for sale. 

The median sale price of a home in Arcata is $454,000, according to data from Redfin. The average household income from 2020-2024 was $46,000, according to the Census Bureau. A household making Arcata’s average wage likely wouldn’t meet a bank’s threshold to qualify for a loan. 

The community needs to focus on providing more affordable housing for people who work in Arcata, and ensuring that the city has many different types of housing available at all prices, a majority of residents said. Exactly half said that providing temporary shelter for the homeless was a priority. 

Only a small number of people (6%) said that Arcata’s housing was located in the wrong places, and only 18% thought that Cal Poly Humboldt students needed more housing. 

So, in some hypothetical reality where a developer sees the results of this survey and decides to start building, where should they start putting it? The top choice — more than 60% — want housing to be built in renovated buildings, followed by a preference for putting it all near “shopping or town centers.” Less than 30% said they wanted it near Cal Poly Humboldt or to construct on open land. (People that answered this question were allowed to select as many options as they wanted.)

People generally seem to like accessory dwelling units. Around half said they wanted to see more of them around town, and several people in free-form response sections singled them out as a partial solution to Arcata’s affordability problem. A few people also pointed a finger at short-stay vacation rentals, like Airbnbs and VRBOs, as being prime drivers of a housing shortage. (Around 2% of the city’s housing, about 120 homes, are short-stay rentals. City law only allows them to grant 100 total permits for short-stay rentals, but the council granted an exception to 20 unpermitted owners who were paying the hotel tax last year.)

A few said they thought high-earning professionals needed more higher-end housing that suited their well-heeled needs. 

People love living in Arcata, many of them said, and it makes sense that housing prices are inflated. But that doesn’t mean they’re psyched about it.

“Housing is a real puzzle because the very things that give Arcata its high quality of life are the things that drive up the property values,” one person wrote. “I like the fact that Arcata is the most sought-after, in-demand, and expensive housing in our whole community because it’s a great place to live! However, this clearly presents difficult economic issues for lower income folks and first time home buyers who want to make Arcata their home.”