Rhode Island Housing Crisis? (Providence, Cranston: townhome, unemployed, buy)
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And not sure what the big secret is. You obviously chose Smith Hill.
I mean, you told us you wanted a 10 minute or less walk to the train.
That limits it to Downtown, College Hill, Mt Hope, or Smith Hill.
Eliminate Downtown because there aren't any SFH.
Eliminate College Hill because you said it's too expensive.
Eliminate Mt Hope because you said you weren't comfortable there.
What's left?
The problem with blatantly lying to the extent you do is that you'll eventually trip yourself up with your own lies. I did say that I was looking to live a 15-20 minutes walk from the station (not 10). But you yourself implied that I made up that criteria to distract from the fact that I was "obviously looking to buy in Elmwood," remember? So which is it - was I making up the walking distance criteria, or were you lying about my looking in Elmwood? It cannot be both.
And finally, I haven't shared which neighborhood I ended up in and I explicitly stated in this thread the reasons why I'm not revealing that information. So you're either making up more stuff to try and troll me (more dishonesty and a blatant violation of CD's terms of service) or you're revealing personal information which I've clearly said I would prefer not to have revealed in which case you're outing me (an even bigger violation of CD's terms of service than the trolling). So which violation is it, Plum?
I was thinking more about this "housing crisis" idea and re-read the OP's original link.
Let's assume that lots more people do want to live in RI.
Do we want to let everyone who wants to come here be able to be housed here? The article says: "A 2016 report commissioned by the quasi-public agency Rhode Island Housing warned that the state had to add roughly 34,000 to 40,000 housing units over the next decade to meet the needs of the population."
Do we want 40,000 housing units in our little state? Do we want lots of high rises everywhere? Most people want single family homes- where would so many be built?
I do worry about preserving quality of life in this state in terms of preserving open space and rural areas.
It does seem that there's room to redevelop deteriorating areas, but the state can't afford to do all that- it's private developers. Will that happen under current conditions?
I was thinking more about this "housing crisis" idea and re-read the OP's original link.
Let's assume that lots more people do want to live in RI.
Do we want to let everyone who wants to come here be able to be housed here? The article says: "A 2016 report commissioned by the quasi-public agency Rhode Island Housing warned that the state had to add roughly 34,000 to 40,000 housing units over the next decade to meet the needs of the population."
Do we want 40,000 housing units in our little state? Do we want lots of high rises everywhere? Most people want single family homes- where would so many be built?
I do worry about preserving quality of life in this state in terms of preserving open space and rural areas.
It does seem that there's room to redevelop deteriorating areas, but the state can't afford to do all that- it's private developers. Will that happen under current conditions?
Very well said by one of us who is all set, well-heeled & already happily living in our beautiful state. For others less fortunate, preserving open space & rural areas isn't such a big priority. They just want a decent place in RI to live - that they can afford.
FYI: I am "all set" because I worked very hard over a lifetime to get where I am, putting sweat equity into one house after another. I did not start out with any family money nor with a single family house.
You're right, the poor don't care about preserving open space. But if we don't preserve open space in RI, we'll all be living in a concrete jungle in this tiny state.
In our capitalistic society, what people want and what they can afford have always been two different things.
We're in an inflationary cycle right now- a lot of people may have to lower their expectations.
Whole villages were once built in RI to house the workers of large factories and corporations. After the corporations and factories who underwrote the construction left, the only affordable home builders were the government- and we all know what happened to QOL at housing project towers.
Perhaps more working middle class need to move into the neighborhoods so much denigrated on this forum. Maybe younger people need to realize that they need to adopt the European or Asian model instead of the American lone wolf model, i.e. move directly into a fabulous renovated single family home in a walkable neighborhood?
LRFox just came up with his own move- good luck to him in his new abode!
I was thinking more about this "housing crisis" idea and re-read the OP's original link.
Let's assume that lots more people do want to live in RI.
Do we want to let everyone who wants to come here be able to be housed here? The article says: "A 2016 report commissioned by the quasi-public agency Rhode Island Housing warned that the state had to add roughly 34,000 to 40,000 housing units over the next decade to meet the needs of the population."
Do we want 40,000 housing units in our little state? Do we want lots of high rises everywhere? Most people want single family homes- where would so many be built?
I do worry about preserving quality of life in this state in terms of preserving open space and rural areas.
It does seem that there's room to redevelop deteriorating areas, but the state can't afford to do all that- it's private developers. Will that happen under current conditions?
Lots of questions with no simple answers....
It's a very valid concern and a good question. My primary gripe with studies like "34k-40k housing units need to be added..." is that they're done in a vacuum. 40k units amounts to about an 8% increase in housing units and an approximate population increase of about 98,000. That's significant. And because we don't live in a vacuum, a lot more would need to change in conjunction with the addition of 40k units to "meet the needs of the population." Roads would need to be improved, as would transit, schools, and a litany of other services. I'm all for growth, but it needs to be smart growth. It's hard to take calls for 40k new housing units in a decade seriously when bridges are falling down, the state's discussing service cuts and a relocated hub on RIPTA, and we're having a hard time staffing schools, hospitals, emergency services, etc. Unless those things change, the current slower pace of development and growth is really the only reasonable approach.
That said, I don't think it's impossible to add a significant number of housing units (even close to 40k) without having a major, detrimental impact on the environment and/or current quality of life.
For starters, I do think that most of those units would have to be in mutli-unit buildings and most built in urban areas. I agree that most people will want single family, but that doesn't mean everyone will get single family (at least not right away). It's also going to be easier to permit 100 units in an old mill or a single building on former industrial land in Pawtucket thank it will be to permit a development of even 20 single family homes in Exeter. And if 75% of the 40k units are built in cities, you're looking at just under 75k new residents. It's easier for those 75k residents to be spread across places like Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Cranston, East Providence, Woonsocket, Newport, etc. than in the more rural parts of the state.
I personally don't think a very limited number of duplexes, town homes, or lower density multi-unit buildings in predominantly single-family towns and suburbs is a horrible thing either. But I imagine resistance would swift and fierce in most RI towns. In an ideal world, towns could choose a location or two for just such development. It would provide opportunities for more people to live outside of urban areas without committing anything close to the amount of land needed for an SFH.
Single family homes are more challenging, but I think it's doable to add 10k or so over time without destroying the state. The best spots to add the bulk of SFHs without clearing forests or taking over agricultural land would be repurposing vacant or underutilized industrial spaces and/or dead/dying retail areas. There are plenty of both across the state. I also think there's plenty of land for some smaller developments in some suburban cities and towns that wouldn't drastically alter either the character of those communities or the natural environment.
But ultimately, I think people need to be more realistic about single family homes in Southern New England. Supply is constrained and space to build more is limited. It might not be realistic anymore to expect "starter homes" to be single family homes in all (or even most) instances. A larger percentage of the population might have to opt for a duplex, condo, or townhome as a first time purchase and go for the SFH down the road. I don't think that's unreasonable. It's far more common in other parts of the country already.
FYI: I am "all set" because I worked very hard over a lifetime to get where I am, putting sweat equity into one house after another. I did not start out with any family money nor with a single family house.
I certainly didn't mean to imply that you didn't deserve to be "all set". By all accounts, you are self-made. Many of those who are currently struggling in todays housing market, are finding it more difficult than in the past. This too should pass. I find timing & particularly luck have much to do with how life rolls out. But, I can only speak for myself.
I think we can all agree that we are in a very unique housing market right now. In the early 80’s many of us saw 14-15% mortgage rates. Maybe even a bit higher. For the next 40 years they slowly came down to what we saw was a very small window of opportunity where it was 2.75-3.25% just recently. Now it headed back up and that pretty much closed the door on those that want to move up affordably.
We were 12 years from retirement in 2010 and homes we looked at in RI are now listing for four to five times more. I think the answer for some will be to gamble on fringe neighborhoods but then you begin to push lower I come people out. Hindsight is 20/20 but I never imagined the housing market would have come back with such a vengeance.
I look at my hometown of Warwick that had such a build up in population and building of schools in the 70’s and now it’s population is greying and schools are being closed as the population of children decreases.
I certainly didn't mean to imply that you didn't deserve to be "all set". By all accounts, you are self-made. Many of those who are currently struggling in todays housing market, are finding it more difficult than in the past. This too should pass. I find timing & particularly luck have much to do with how life rolls out. But, I can only speak for myself.
As someone who graduated undergrad at the height of the great recession and went unemployed for 6 months immediately after, I would tend to agree. But I've since caught a few breaks, timed my first home purchase perfectly, and was positioned as well as I could have been to upgrade even in this current market. Most of that was luck. It looks pretty bleak even for a lot of people who have good jobs and some savings. It's not just low-income folks who can't even buy a fixer-upper today.
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