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.
The cost of single family housing in
much of Connecticut increased sharply during the 1980s, then
experienced regional/urban declines at the end of the decade linked
to overbuilding and an ongoing movement of higher income households
from the major cities. On the surface, this correction in housing
prices looked like a return to greater affordability (particularly
when the median cost of housing is compared to per capital personal
income rather than median household income). Existing homeowners
certainly feel they are benefiting by the annual increase in housing
values. Market forces are creating household net worth beyond what
is generated by repayment of mortgage indebtedness. In a period of
declining returns on investments in shares of stock, corporate bonds
and money market funds, housing gains are a welcome means of
asset-building. Nationally during
2001, the median price of existing homes increased by 7.4 percent.
The median price paid for a home in the first quarter of 2002 was
$150,900, up from $139,700 in the first quarter of 2001.
As reported in the
CPEC
Review (February 2002): "Connecticut per capita
property values rose an average of 11.7% over the past decade,
although that number masks a major difference in city/ suburb
performance. Values dropped in all of Connecticut’s cities —
in some cases, precipitously — while they ballooned in several
towns, notably New Canaan (up 76%), Greenwich (up 75%) and Darien
(up 64%)." [CPEC Review is
published by the Connecticut Policy and Economic Council] |
STATE OF CONNECTICUT CONSOLIDATED
PLAN |
THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE
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"Builders are not building
starter homes. It's just not feasible economically for them. If land
costs $80,000 how are you going to build a home for less than
$200,000. That's not going to happen and that's definitely an issue."
[Dave Burns, Market Manager, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, quoted in
the above article from 2000 in the Rockingham News.]
"As of spring 2001, the nation's costliest locations according
to [Edward Moscovitch] were Washington, D.C., Wyoming, Connecticut
and Massachusetts, with California and the rest of New England
following." Source: Alexandra Dawson,
"The
affordable-housing problem.", GazetteNET, 15 April, 2002.
Social State
of Connecticut 1996 -- Affordable Housing
... Fordham Institute for Innovation in Social Policy |
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