internet says cabrini green was the assumed location of the 70s show “Good Times.” It was a slum and the fact the place was so dangerous and poorly maintained was part of some episode’s plots. We do NOT want “Good Times” density anywhere in Raleigh, not on New Bern - Edenton regardless of public transportation, or anywhere else in town. It was a failed experiment on many levels.
whatever gets built in this area (and everywhere else) that has low income residents as tenants, needs the residents/recipients of public assistance to be vested interest in having and maintaining the buildings and grounds. Hopefully Raleigh leaders have better ideas than the dense chicago mess.
I know when i had lost my job 10 years ago and was on unemployment and food stamps for over a year, the amount of government waste and excess crediits given our family was shocking…sorry, didnt mean to go off on a tangent, just saying I’ve been on the recipient side of help.and glad i’m out of that
For anyone following the inflation of building materials, see the WSJ article linked below.
Hopefully the historic inflation in products ranging from garage doors to asphalt shingles will open up a gap for innovation, competition, and price leveling from new material technology and producers.
One thing is for sure… anyone who was struggling to attain home ownership in this market before the pandemic is in much deeper water now. When the shutdowns first hit and businesses first started closing, I found a Harvard study quantifying excess cancer deaths that were directly attributed to the 08-11 recession. and began wondering what the unintended consequences of economic shutdowns were going to be related to COVID. The jury is still out whether the housing crises exacerbated by supply chain bottlenecks is going to worsen before it betters, but here is a sign that at least lumber is hopefully coming back to something close to pre-pandemic levels.
For those that may not be aware, new construction pricing in this market is up $40-$50 per heated square foot. That’s an extra $160k-$200k for a 4,000 sf home compared to that exact same home being built in 2019.
I can attest to those rises. Started scooping out neighborhoods around the triangle around the 300k range last July planning to move here next year. By October a lot of those same neighborhoods were going up 20k at a time and had wait lists for lots. I look back on those neighborhoods now and most are well into the 400s or only accepting “highest and best offers” on lots, which i had never seen in new construction.
We’re looking at a 25-30% increase in new construction in just a year. Thankful we decided to make the jump a year earlier than we originally planned otherwise I’m not sure I would’ve ended up leaving Atlanta.
Things can’t keep on like this, something has to give soon.
Cary housing market data point. Friend of mine in Lochmere neighborhood, one of the older, established and desirable areas of Cary near Crossroads & Waverly Place, let me know a neighbor just sold their house after receiving 84 offers for the home in one weekend.
Buyer who was selected paid $120,000 over asking price.
its getting crazy
I had a chat last week with Rhett Fussell of RALT if you want to hear more straight from the source on the Land Trust model and their project/team. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1786561/8910167
Fascinating interview and great to hear about this innovative solution looking to provide affordable housing in Raleigh. Thanks for posting to let us know!
I’ve purchased a house built through a city of Raleigh affordable housing program (State Street Village) and I want to address/make people aware of a complicated issue related to low-income home ownership programs. These programs are absolutely fantastic whenever a low-income home buyer is able to work through the red tape and actually buy a house and help kick-start generational wealth; however, there are often more challenges in qualifying for the program than the vast majority of low-income residents can overcome: credit scores, loan qualifications, proof of income, etc. These are not small issues, these are issues that a person typically has to spend YEARS addressing before they can reasonably overcome them (credit scores, ahem???). So what ends up happening WAY more often than not in these for-purchase affordable housing programs is you still end up with the gentrification that would happen at market rates, you’re just catching the gentrifiers (people with good credit scores, know people with enough money to cosign on loans, etc.) on entry level salaries that allow them to be below 80% AMI. There are good programs aimed at addressing these issues with the local communities, organizations like DHIC and their homeownership program and training, or mortgage companies willing to lend money outside of their traditional loan programs, but these are way too far and in-between to make a dent in the overall issue.
Finally, something the city of Raleigh did as well regarding low-income ‘for-purchase’ housing is they write into the deed that the owner recoups 10% of the equity on the house each year…so if you sold in year 5 you’d get 50% of the equity, and the city would use the other 50% of equity they’d get back to reinvest back into affordable housing. I think that helped a little with people buying affordable housing at below market rate and immediately flipping, but it hasn’t addressed the issue of true low-income buyers being able to overcome the bureaucratic and process barriers hindering them from participating in the programs.
“low-income” buyers shouldn’t be purchasing a home…I didn’t when I was starting out. I rented.
I’m 100% in favor of the program you reference for teachers, fire fighters, police officers…basically anyone with a job who can at least meet some basic requirements of traditional financing. If your credit score is sh##…why should the City or any other sane financial institution provide financing?
Not sure why we continue to feel a need to create a financial structure for folks that should never be placed into a situation they can’t afford and default on the loans…
The sub-prime sector is a good example of why you should not be offering home programs to folks who can’t afford it…2008 was another textbook example
Thanks Zoojay and UncleJesse this is a great topic. I agree that low-income buyers on entry-level salaries don’t need to be purchasing a home. And if government programs are helping young people buy houses sooner, when they could probably afford it on their own later - that’s against the intent of the program.
But I do make an exception for preferring home-ownership programs over rentals when we are talking about Black Raleigh natives who’s families were systematically prevented from owning or benefiting from homeownership for 100+ years. When we think of historically Black neighborhoods in SE Raleigh that are experiencing gentrification, part of the problem is that the previous occupants who are displaced don’t benefit from the increased land values because they are renters. It may be too difficult for government to achieve, but a program that helps low-income native Black families to actually own homes in their neighborhood (or throughout the city) is preferable to below-market-rate rental housing.
You can’t single out one race for these programs. It violates the US Constitution. Remember most of these areas in American now seeing gentrification were ‘white before they were black’. White flight took hold and downtowns became less desirable…hence poorer, oftentimes African-Americans moved in so claiming these areas were always by & for black people is oftentimes historically inaccurate.
This is not an easy solution. Did systemic racism exist and create a lot of the problems we see today, particularly in the African-American community…the answer is an unequivocal…YES!! Anyone that tries to dispute this truth is lying, plain & simple.
The PROBLEM however is you can’t apply capitalism/business principles to fix this problem.
You simply can’t provide a more favorable rate structure for home mortgages to a single race…PERIOD. This sort of social engineering will NOT happen. There is too much resistance in America…myself included…though not necessarily for reasons others oppose this sort of structure.
Addressing larger challenges within poorer communities, African-Americans as well as all others…like education, jobs, financial literacy education, health care, planned parenting, etc are the ultimate solutions to the displacement folks are concerned about.
Problem is…these solutions take a long time to show the fruits of the effort so it ain’t happening overnight.
It would seem to me that any available program needs outreach to underserved communities that they are intended to help. Isn’t that something that Stormie Forte was doing prior to her appointment to the city council, or am I not remembering correctly?
NPR’s Planet Money podcast did a segment on the housing shortage & affordability. They mention Raleigh about changing the Single Family zoning laws (@ 11:10).
I can’t help but wonder if the solution can also include renovation of larger homes into 2 units within the footprint of the existing home, instead of always thinking that the solution needs to be an ADU. A lot of elderly don’t want to leave their houses and neighborhoods, but they don’t need half their houses anymore. Why not take a large two story house and make it 2 modestly sized single floor units instead?
I guess your latest exemple would easily be done with the new ADU rules without too much headache.
Otherwise, I think we are talking of a transformation from Single Family Dwelling Unit to Multiple Family with all the code requirements that kick in for fire separation, probably second electrical and water meters, etc.
I would be more in favor of some kind of rule that if you tear down a building you can only rebuild something that has a higher density, typically to avoid 1ksf homes being replaced by 3.5ksf “mansion”. But I’m dreaming here .
.