The purpose of looking into the Manhattan/Ogden area in the Flint Hills region is to design, propose, and develop a prototype for an affordable and sustainable net positive housing to better serve the needs of the workforce in the area. At the beginning of the semester, the studio began work on an in-depth neighborhood analysis of the Manhattan area, focusing on the current housing situation in the area. We have looked at the different housing conditions and the opportunities that the are has to offer, as well as finishing construction on the previous Net+ Studio’s housing prototype in St. John, Kansas. This construction opportunity allowed the studio a look into other regional approaches to the workforce housing situation.
Ogden has a median home value of $122,778 according to Zillow, with home values having risen by 0.8% in the past year and with home values expected to rise by 6.8% over the next year. Though there are some commercial real estate values of over $1 million dollars, most properties are older and can vary widely in size and value in the majority of the middle and southern parts of town and are mostly valued at under $100,000. However there are a fair amount of homes that are also in the $100,000 to just under $250,000 range and a few with even higher values than that. The northern part of town represents newer home development with more recent lot divisions and a general uniformity to the size and value of homes in this area. The values are almost all in the $100,00 to under $250,000 range. There are also a decent amount of vacant home lots on the extreme north and south of town. In addition to everything else, there are many larger lots and plots of farmland that are part of the area as well. Overall, the houses remain reliably affordable while being reliably eclectic.
The Net Positive Studio 