Unfortunately, the affordable housing units at Oriole Landing which cost $2,500 per month not including utility and our town paid $1,000,000 to the developer to secure the units to remain affordable in perpetuity is still beyond the reach of many of the people who provide valuable services to the town! It is important that we develop housing that are truly affordable and not in name only! According to the rule of thumb of spending 25% of one’s take home pay on housing, one has to have a monthly income of $10,000 (25% of $10,000 is $2,500) and an annual take home income of $120,000. I know many of our teachers don’t make a six figure salary. I wonder whom we are building the condos/apartments for?
Susanna Szeto On Oct 18, 2023, at 3:20 PM, Bob Kupperstein <bobk...@gmail.com> wrote:
I agree, with the comment and the article's introduction - protecting property values has practically become a divine right, and it is in direct conflict with affordable housing.
I think, as the article suggests, a good test is whether the people who work in a town, who make it run, protect it, provide services, etc., can afford and have a reasonable opportunity to live where they serve. How many of our police, firefighters, teachers, town employees, local business employees, etc. live here - or could - if they wanted to? I think Lincoln, as well as many other suburban towns in the region, fails that test.
-Bob I had a very different reaction to the article. Nowhere in the piece did I discern that the Globe's Spotlight's team's thesis is that there is a housing crisis for those looking for single-family homes. Rather, the crux of the article (and this is just the first in a series) is summed up in the introductory paragraphs below.
John
For Milton’s story is everywhere – it is the story of Boston’s pricey suburbs, cocooned by restrictive single-family zoning rules that make apartment and condo projects so hard to permit that they are rarely built. It is the story of a town, and region, that has for half a century doubled down on the status quo, or made zoning even more restrictive, all but guaranteeing that single-family home prices — rising more steeply here than in any other state since 1980 — will remain shockingly high. The fallout from these outrageous home prices is a sort of economic climate change, steadily making much of the region uninhabitable for those of modest incomes. Expensive housing acts as a golden gate, and there is a price to be paid for living in a gated community. This is the price: Across this region, the dream of suburban life is largely foreclosed by lack of affordable options to the children of those who live in the suburbs now, to the town employees who keep municipalities humming, to newcomers who might bring new energies to town — and added diversity of class and race. One fact became obvious in the course of this review: The sense of urgency here does not match this brewing crisis. Not even close. One reason may be that swelling property values don’t feel like a crisis for those who bought into the market years or decades ago, they feel like a windfall. This region, Milton included, is awash in paper millionaires. But standing pat will suffocate hope — the hope of many now trying to enter this mad housing market, from empty-nesters hoping to downsize in the town they know, to newcomers seeking to buy a first home as careers and prosperity grow.
Yes -very inserting article. And very well written-very readable.
But what is of special note is that the article calls it a crisis for those seeking SINGLE FAMILY HOMES. Those are the first examples they offer.
And, then the pivot is to apartment developments and condos, with no equivalent documentation of demand…just the assertion. It is easy to document the demand for affordable units as there are waging lists. On the other hand, we are not documenting demand for market rate, especially high end units. It seems there is no discussion as to how to meet the noted demand for single family homes.
Also of note is the graph of where there are a lot of building permits being pulled and where there are not, without also noting that lots of permits are being pulled where land is easier to come by, like the Denver area.
The real challenge will be how to meet demand for single family homes in our area.
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