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KITTITAS COUNTY, WASHINGTON Planning Context To provide a common foundation for the planning process, TIP compiled economic and demographic data that highlights the County's competitive position. Coupled with insights gained from stakeholder engagement and the experience of the TIP consulting team, this work served as the basis for an analysis of the County's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOTs), a summary of which is presented in this section. Economic Context As part of the project's discovery phase, TIP assembled data describing the economic health of Kittitas County, including state and national benchmarks. This comprehensive analysis was delivered as an interactive data visualization. The Kittitas County Washington Economic Explorerlool covered a broad range of data points encompassing population and demographics, workforce characteristics, housing characteristics, industry and occupation composition, and commuting patterns. The following are selected highlights from this work. Population growth rafes in ffiffitas County have accelercted in recent years driven by strong net domesfic migration. The number of Kittitas County residents has grown steadily since 1990. Recent population estimates indicate a period of rapid growth since 2015, driven by strong net domestic migration. However, the 2020 Census suggests a somewhat slower pace. While population estimates may diffel there is little doubt that people are moving to Kittitas County. About 16 percent of residents in 2019 moved to the County from elsewhere. This share is more than 25 percent for Ellensburg, alone, although this number is inflated by the influx of students each year. While preliminary estimates may have overstated the increase since the 2010 Census, the County's population growth rate has outperformed the state and the US. Housing is rapidly becoming unaffordable for many /esidenfs. Like population trends, home prices in Kittitas County have accelerated rapidly in recent years. As a result, housing risks becoming unaffordable to many in the County. An analysis of American Community Survey data found that nearly one-third of homeowners (31.4 percent) and more than one-half of renters (56.8 percent) were cost burdened, defined as spending more than 30 percent of income on housing (Figure 6, page 21). A more nuanced approach to housing affordability compares typical mortgage costs for a median-valued home to the median household income of a region. Using this metric, even a household earning 35 percent more than the median ($ZS,OOO; would struggle to afford the median home in the region (Figure 7, page 21). Factors influencing home prices include the relatively strong levels of net in-migration seen in recent years (which increases the demand for homes) and the large stock of seasonal homes (which can create inefficiencies in local markets). PAGE 19 I ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIC PLAN