CityState: Reporter
what happened during 9/11. People in the
New York metropolitan area began looking
outside of the city for a sanctuary in a quieter,
more peaceful area.”
Realtor Jonathan Daly-LaBelle credits
the Congressional stimulus packages with
stabilizing people’s finances and the middle-income
housing market. “From my
perspective,” he adds, “additional stimulus
will be crucial to ensuring that continues
to be the case.”
A balanced real estate market has about
seven months of inventory; by May 1,
Rhode Island had two and a half months.
As far back as June 2015, when the RIAR
began publishing monthly infographics,
the state had five months of inventory.
Residential building permits, as tallied
by the U.S. Census Bureau annual survey,
have fallen 60 percent, from 3,414 permits
in 1999 to 1,394 in 2019. At the same time,
each year, the state loses about 500 units
to deterioration and demolition.
The reasons are many: a lack of land,
Baby Boomers and elderly homeowners
staying put, scarce funding for subdivision
infrastructure, the high cost of new construction
and municipalities’ exclusionary
zoning ordinances. Incomes have risen,
but the paltry supply has pushed housing
prices even higher.
“Right now, for renters and homeowners
with an income of $50,000, there is no
municipality in which you can buy a house
and not be considered cost-burdened,” says
Brenda Clement, director of the Roger
Williams University housing studies center.
“Rhode Island continues to be a state that
does not invest in affordable housing.”
The housing shortage has gotten so
acute that, before the COVID crisis hit,
Governor Gina Raimondo unveiled a package
of incentives as part of her 2021 budget
proposal. Rhode Island is the only New
England state without dedicated affordable
housing funds, so the package garnered
support from advocates like Clement, the
Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless
and Greg Gerritt, a longtime environmental
activist.
“We have had a building boom, but we’re
only getting high-end rental or housing,”
Gerritt says. “Construction is the one
industry that you can pump a little money
into and get a short-term boost. We are
subsidizing the wealthy and increasing
inequality and gentrification.” >>
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