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2017 Housing Report

September 24, 2018

Category: Developer Information

2017 Housing Report


Carlsbad and Eddy County are experiencing a housing shortage do to an influx of labor working in the oil and gas fields coupled with a diverse and thriving economy. During the current upswing in oil and gas that began in early 2017, we began seeing the same markers we saw from 2012-2015, natural resources employment in the county went up, residential occupancy rate began to rise, unemployment rates began to fall, and hotel and housing prices increased. This has created a surge in our population with the greater Carlsbad area population sitting at around 63,500, and people are living wherever they can find availability. According to the 2015 housing study, there are three main groups not being well served by the existing housing 1) households where the primary wage earner makes $10 per hour and below, 2) the general workforce earning between $10 and $16 an hour, and 3) households who can afford the market area prices but can’t find anything suitable to rent or buy. In addition, there are workers, primarily in the oil and gas related industries, who live in Eddy County during the week and return home on the weekends. These workers do not relocate their families because of the lack of housing. Eddy County is situated in the middle of a very large oil and gas play with unprecedented opportunity due to the major stratification of the layers.