By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
During their careers with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Rik and Katherine Arndt lived in some of the West’s most desirable areas – Denver, near Yosemite National Park, New Mexico, and in Ashland.
But when it came time to retire the Arndts chose Yachats to build their new home. It wasn’t a decision out of the blue — they had been vacationing here for 10 years.
“We decided that rather than visiting Yachats we’d move there and visit somewhere else,” said Arndt.
Decisions like that are driving a Yachats-sized boomlet in new home construction and what could be a record amount of remodeling. While it doesn’t compare to the surge of new construction in Oregon’s larger cities, it’s a significant and noticeable change for a small, tourist and retirement community in coastal Oregon.
“Yachats is definitely attractive to people,” said Larry Lewis, who has seen all the economic ups and downs during his 16 years as Yachats’ city planner. “They come here and fall in love with it. They visit for a few years and then say ‘Hey, I want to move there’.”
Yachats has about 760 houses inside the city.
In 2018 Lincoln County issued 11 permits for new, single-family houses in Yachats. In 2017 that number was 15 and in 2016 there were nine. In 2015 there were 17 permits issued for new houses but seven of those were for the KOHO development on the south side of the Yachats River.
In 2017 Lincoln County issued 140 permits in Yachats for all types of residential and commercial construction or remodeling valued at $4.55 million. In 2018 that jumped to 171 permits valued at $6.25 million.
“The last two years there’s definitely been more activity,” said Lewis, who retired from his city planning contract job at the end of December.
A November report from the Oregon Employment Department – albeit for the 2011-2015 time period – backs up Lewis’ statement.
The state said Lincoln County had about 3,100 in migrants on average per year for the years 2011 through 2015 with 57 percent coming from out of state and 41 percent coming from other counties in Oregon. Although Multnomah County was by far the largest single source of people moving to Lincoln County, the state report said, the area also attracted a significant number of migrants from Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, and California.
But before you get too worried about the influx of people, the state Employment Department estimated this month that during the last eight years Yachats grew only by 55 people to a 2018 year-end total of 745 permanent residents. In a county of 48,210 people, Yachats remains the smallest, incorporated city.
BUSY CONTRACTORS
The Arndts first looked at buying an existing house, but couldn’t find the right fit. They finally came across a lot for sale on Ocean View Drive situated well enough to install solar panels and build a garden.
“We jumped on it,” Arndt said.
There’s another newly-finished house next door.
Having already found C.P. Carlson Builders of Waldport via the internet, the Arndts started the design process for their 1,200-square foot house.
With 12 employees and the capability to both design and build a house, Carlson is the area’s largest homebuilder and remodeler.
And like most other contractors, they’ve been very busy the past three years. Chris Carlson, the company’s second-generation owner, says 2018 was their best.
“There is more going on and people are spending more money, putting more into their home, whether it’s new or a remodel,” he said.
Carlson says most customers building a new home have his company do the design as well. But they almost always have their lot in hand. Lots are plentiful in south Lincoln County and have not recovered much of their value from the recession of 2008-10.
Helping drive new construction, Carlson said, is that bank loan appraisals of new homes have rebounded to 90 percent of value. During the recession, he said, appraisals were 50 percent of value because the sale of coastal custom homes had bottomed out.
In Yachats, Lewis said, most new homes are being built on “infill” lots. Other than KOHO, significant proposed subdivisions in the city did not survive the recession. In the past few years, however, four homes sprouted up in the 16-lot Windsong Heights subdivision off King Street.
KOHO WRAPPING UP
After seven years, KOHO developer Dave Rieseck hopes to finish his 30-home subdivision by the end of this year. The last seven are under construction and all but one of the existing 23 houses are sold.
KOHO’s custom houses range in size from 1,500- to 1,800 square feet, have one to three levels and cost $500,000 to $625,000 depending on size and location.
But building in a remote area of the coast can be a challenge getting the right materials and requiring special construction techniques to withstand the salt and weather. KOHO’s costs also jumped significantly when Rieseck developed streets and put all utilities under ground on his 4-acre site.
“But we have 18 good subcontractors and we’ve been able to keep local people working,” he said.
Rieseck, a former City Council member, said what goes mostly unnoticed with any new construction in Yachats is that property taxes from all added value goes to the city’s urban renewal district formed in 2005 to help pay for upgrades to the sewage treatment plant.
“In the end that may be KOHO’s biggest contribution to the community,” he said.
Rieseck said he originally expected that KOHO owners would be split 50-50 between full- and part-time residents. In fact, only two are being used as second homes.
“Our residents are involved on city commissions and committees and active in other volunteer activities,” said Rieseck.
And that level of community activity is one of the things that attracted Rik and Katherine Arndt to Yachats.
“It’s a nice, small community,” he said. “It’s very local. It’s progressive. Over 80 percent of its residents are college graduates. Yachats has all of those little things that make it a nice community.”