$500 per square foot.
That’s what it cost for Summit County to build tiny homes at Nellie’s Neighborhood in Frisco.
Before the pandemic, $500 was the high end of market-rate construction, according to the county’s 2019 housing needs study. $500 is more than three times higher than national average, $162 per square foot, which in 2024 was the highest ever recorded by the National Association of Home Builders.
By this time next week Summit County will know what it costs to get started on Lake Hill, a long-awaited housing project on Dam Road with plans for more than 430 workforce units, parks, trails and senior housing. At one time the county considered up to 900 units there. Those plans have been scrapped.
Proposals from four developers are due April 23. And the county is already bracing for sticker shock.
“While there are not enough resources in the county’s housing department budget to assume the high cost of developing the Lake Hill neighborhood, the county can partner with developers that can put together the project financing, and potentially offer to cover gaps in the financing,” reads a county memo. “The county can also consider loans, property tax exemption tools, partnerships with local municipalities … and state funding.”
The 2019 study and a second one, updated in 2023, are big reasons the county remains committed to Lake Hill. A few key findings:
- – Summit needs 1,865 affordable for-sale units and 2,214 affordable rentals by 2028
- – Summit’s population over 65 years old quadrupled since 2000, and many of these aging locals are struggling to find housing.
- – One in three new units (built 2016-2019) were purchased by second homeowners
- – Short-term rentals account for one in two vacant units countywide. And that was in 2019.