2026 Special Focus: Housing Outlook: Brendan Griesemer

Griesemer’s 2026 Projection: I see the local market watching the national economy closely for signs of improvement. Interest rates could move a little lower, which may bring more buyers back into the market.

What’s your assessment of the pressure points and opportunities we’re seeing in the housing market right now?
The market changed quite a bit in a year’s time. In 2024, there was a great demand for housing, and so there was still a lot of competition for buyers buying housing, and there wasn’t as much stock on the market. That year, we ran through our downpayment assistance funds very quickly – that was close to $500,000 in funding, and we had it committed in five months’ time. Fast forward to 2025 and it slowed down a little bit. In a five-month time period, we’d committed only 60% of those funds. We’re seeing some buyers sitting on the fence and waiting – they’re watching their economic situation, watching rates.

What impact is that wait-and-see stance having on Springfield’s housing?
When you do see a slowdown in the buying market, obviously those people are most likely living in rental units, at least those buyers that we work with, the first-time homebuyers. If they’re not making the decision to jump into the housing market, they’re taking up valuable rentals. Based on the city’s housing study two years ago, there are some deficits in both rental and owner-occupied housing. On the rental side, those deficits impact the very low-income population in our city. When you move into the homeownership side, the area we focus in, the study showed that the city’s about 4,500 units short for owner-occupied housing to serve our workforce needs.

We hear a lot right now about missing-middle housing – options like duplexes that are more dense than single-family but less so than a conventional apartment complex. Does that offer any solutions for those wanting to own homes in Springfield?
There are ways to create missing-middle housing that are viable for homeownership, which is what we’re focused on. We have a finite amount of land in the city; how can we best utilize that land to provide housing? It’s always a moving target, but one of those ways is through missing-middle housing, with row houses, townhouses – they can be constructed more efficiently on a lot and provide housing where the property isn’t currently being used.

It sounds like Springfield is somewhat built out; how big of a problem is that?
One of the things we’re working on is we have brought together a handful of local partner banks to provide capital to create more housing options through Restore SGF, and we have worked on some partnerships with construction companies that are able to build them. The issue that we’re finding is that land is very hard to come by – especially land that you can place housing on. We’re hearing this from all of our development friends as well. When you’re in a city the size of Springfield, a lot of that land really has to be redeveloped. The focus is to look back inward to see where we can use our land more efficiently.

Why is homeownership important in a community – whether Springfield or beyond?
Nearly a third of Springfield neighborhoods have homeownership near 50% or below. Our mission at Restore SGF is to raise homeownership rates in the neighborhoods where we work. If you can get that housing rate above 50%, closer to 60%, that creates neighborhood stability and neighborhood confidence where people can buy homes and make investments that will maintain their value. We’re working to move that needle.