Housing in Guam
By: Brandon Dawson
Guam, the southernmost of the Mariana Islands, has been a territory of the United States since it was annexed in 1898 following the Spanish-American War. Currently, it is home to Andersen Air Force Base, Naval Base Guam, Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, the world’s largest Kmart, and roughly 170,000 people, of which approximately 21,700 are military members or their dependents.
Recently, housing prices in Guam have been surging, reaching a median single-family house price of $426,000. The prices of houses have been increasing recently primarily due to lack of supply. Although Guam constantly is home to many H2-B work visa construction workers, most of them work as military contractors on Guam’s multiple military bases. This leaves far fewer construction workers to be working on off-base housing projects. The lack of workers to build housing is only exacerbated by the unavailability of resources needed to build houses on Guam, for which exorbitant shipping fees need to be payed to receive them from off of the small island. When there are affordable houses available on the market, they are often quickly bought by military members or veterans who have access to VA loans, and can pay cash for the house. For those seeking rentals, many rental houses are priced according to the US Military’s board and housing stipend, which many Guamanians struggle to afford. Lack of available housing is one of the reasons that many Guamanians are leaving Guam for the mainland United States.