When city officials market Seymour to businesses as a place to locate, one of the first questions asked is: Where are employees going to live?

That question gets harder to answer as the city struggles to meet the needs of young professionals and new families moving to the area for jobs.

Jackson County has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state, and the local workforce grew by more than 1,000 last year. Job growth is good for any community, but it squeezes the local housing market even more, officials said.

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According to the most recent commuting trends for the area, in 2012 about 12.5 percent (3,667 people) of those who worked in Jackson County lived elsewhere, mainly Bartholomew County. Seymour Mayor Craig Luedeman and other officials fear that number will climb because of lack of available housing here.

“What I’ve been told by the local Realtors is that we have a housing shortage,” Luedeman said.

Lonn Stuckwish, co-broker/owner of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Seymour said, in general, the housing market in this area is good,

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“One of the things that scares me is we haven’t had a new housing subdivision started lately; and with industries continuing to grow, you wonder if the housing will be there. We have some local builders doing a good job with spot building, putting in a nice home here and there wherever a single lot might open up, but we need more.”

Mayor Craig Luedeman, on the need for more housing options in Seymour

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