A story of property appreciation, YES APPRECIATION! and guess what, it’s in a second home market. 78.2 million baby boomers want to live in rare-air vacation home markets. this is where they are moving…
From The DailyGazette.com
Report: Homes harder to find
Affordability of housing shrinking as prices accelerate
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
By Stephen Williams (Contact)
Gazette Reporter
CAPITAL REGION — Finding affordable housing is becoming harder as real estate prices rise in the Capital Region, according to a new state report.
Second-home purchases in the rural counties north and south of the Schenectady-Albany-Troy area are among reasons prices are higher, even as inner cities continue to struggle with difficult housing issues, the report found.
“Housing affordability was the common issue raised at each of the region’s focus group meetings,” states the Capital District Regional Report prepared by the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal.
The report is part of an unprecedented series of nine reports being written by the housing agency on regional trends around the state, to be used in developing future state housing policies.
“I don’t want to sit in Albany and tell these communities what they need. This is the start of a conversation,” Deborah VanAmerongen, the state housing commissioner, said in an interview.
The report looks at housing trends in Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga, Rensselaer, Warren, Washington, Greene and Columbia counties.
Focus groups met in each county last spring. That was recent enough that participants were aware of impacts on housing prices from the national mortgage crisis, VanAmerongen said.
Based on comments, there’s a concern that high-tech jobs brought in by the Tech Valley economic development initiatives will push housing prices higher, to the detriment of people needing low- and moderate-income housing.
“The influx of people with higher income levels is going to push up housing prices and rentals,” VanAmerongen said.
Particularly in Saratoga and Warren counties, people from outside the region are also buying second or seasonal homes, paying prices that make housing less affordable for year-round residents.
Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, “people from New York City are interested in buying houses in the Hudson Valley, and even up into the northern part of the valley,” VanAmerongen said.
Figures compiled by the Capital District Regional Planning Commission show the leading areas for in-migration to the Capital Region are New York City and Suffolk County.
The split between high-income seasonal residents driving up prices in areas where year-round residents have lower wages was even more pronounced in an earlier report that focused on the Adirondacks and North Country, VanAmerongen said.
According to the report, the median value of an owner-occupied house in the Capital Region rose from $103,624 in 2000 to $172,758 in 2006 — about 67 percent.
The price trend was most dramatic in Saratoga and Warren counties.
The median household income for the region, meanwhile, rose 22 percent, from $43,130 to $52,566.
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