A new report from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council studied the challenge families with children have finding housing, in Newton and across Greater Boston. (Boston Globe story here.)
Part if the issue is simply lack of inventory, especially in communities like Newton where “empty nesters are staying in their family homes long after they no longer need all those bedrooms.” But it’s more complicated than just that….
….families face stiff competition from roommate households, who occupy more than a third of large rental units. With the combined incomes of multiple adults, roommate households can pay, on average, $450 more in monthly rent than the average family in a large unit. This makes it easy for roommates to outbid families for the available homes. We also find that most roommates have few other options: fewer than one in ten roommates could afford the median priced one-bedroom unit in the area. It also seems that the problem is getting worse; the lack of affordable smaller options has pushed more younger householders into roommate households since 2000, increasing competition for the limited supply of large units.
Read the full report here. But here’s the final graph of the exec summary reads…
These results shed light on a topic of great concern to many people around the region, and demonstrate there is no one cause, and no one solution, to the lack of family housing in Greater Boston. The challenges facing families are symptomatic of the region’s broader housing crisis resulting from the underproduction of housing of all types, at many price points, across all communities. The needs of families cannot be addressed in isolation, but require comprehensive action to produce more housing to meet the needs of all the region’s residents today, and tomorrow.
The report asks “what incentives could entice [senior] owners to transition to smaller units?”
As 70 years old with 68 year old spouse currently enjoying living in a 4 or 5 bedroom house frequented by other adult family members — albeit not a particularly large house by Newton standards, and still essentially currently using all of the space — I’ll nevertheless ask the same question, for myself and others similarly situated in Newton, what newly proposed incentives can be offered “to transition to a smaller unit”.
If this is the main concern then the only viable solution is to ban single family zoning in Newton (including historic (aka rich person loophole))
Any home which comes up for sale becomes fair game for developers to create multi family. The incentive being more $$ on the sale price
Of course there is still a rich person loophole.. the mega rich never need to sell and they get to live in gigantic homes(eg obamas 6000 sqft, 30 acre house) while lecturing us about housing affordability
.. wait .. what about office space? They pretty much empty after 6pm to 6am.. imagine all the homeless we could house in TripAdvisor’s unused space at night
@Bugek – Do you ever post anything here other than trolling, sarcastic comments? To what end?
Jerry
Its great to see that this post is targeting the eldery to meet its agenda..
Seniors should feel no social guilt or pressure to remain in homes they have built their life around.
I posted a ridiculous comment because of how offensive it is to suggest senior citizens are to blame for shortages. They lived and supported newton all their lives and dont deserve this kind of attitude.
Last week I met with a woman who told me that she and her husband have both retired and were about to put their home on the market. They’d raised children there, it’s been a good house and has some great advantages for them. But they’re moving to Washington Place. It’s a smaller space and it’s near everything they need. It offers a walkable environment and isn’t too far from their current home.
My parents had a big house in Atlanta and could have stayed in it. Most of their lives were on a single floor and their grandchildren loved the house. But it just became too much space and too much to maintain. They wanted a place that was just easier, and they found it in a multifamily building. Personally, I don’t think it’s walkable enough, but they’re happy, especially that they have all they want and a community of people in the building. They aren’t isolated like they were, but still have all the privacy they want.
We don’t need to offer incentives to people who don’t want to move, we need to offer opportunities for those that do.
I’ve been helping several friends, both singles and couples, who are ready to give up their houses and downsize. I have found Newton and some surrounding towns, to be unique versus the many other states, cities and towns I have lived in because of the many older, beautifully updated two and three family homes here. That’s what some of these folks are looking for now with maybe another move down the road.
None of theses folks want anything smaller than a three bedroom with at least $1500 sq ft. – preferably more. They have grown children, grandchildren and friends who come stay a while. These people have active lifestyles so I’m not talking about being ready to live in a senior home.
(BTW, this applies to me too. I downsized and now have 3 bedrooms with an extra sunroom and another bedroom wouldn’t be wasted. One bedroom is my daughter’s – she visits at least one a month when she has meetings or conferences in Boston. The other is for guests/my office – my grandkids visit regularly – the oldest will be going to college in Boston this year – and for good friends I’ve made along the way. But I’m thinking at some point I may go for an elevator building with less space perhaps in Northland.)
After talking to plenty of realtors, I’m pretty up to date with what landlords are looking for in tenants in Newton and the first and main thing they are looking for are “professionals” with high incomes, valuable assets and super high credit scorers. I’m also finding them to be arrogant and hard to work with when it comes to leasing instead of buying. It’s so competitive that owners and landlords won’t take the first application even if it’s exactly what they are looking for because they know there will be loads more to pick from. So at least in these rental spaces, college kids with roommates wouldn’t be considered.
There are creative ways to solve those occasional space needs. For example, some new buildings — including 28 Austin Street if my memory serves me — have a spare mini-apartment that tenants can reserve for oversight guests. Others offer a co working areas in the building.
Greg, I’m sure there are “creative ways to solve those occasional space needs.” I’m going to assume that you meant – if someone is looking for a solution to that particular problem.
@Marti: Yes, what I meant is if someone feels they need an extra bedroom for those two or three nights a year when Aunt Bessey visits, having a small apartment in your building that Aunt Bessey can use those nights could be a great solution, especially considering that Aunt Bessey is quite the snorer!
Greg, thanks for clarifying. For a second I thought that since you were replying to my friends and I living, and at this point wanting to continue to live, in a 3 bedroom + home as needing to find a solution to a problem we don’t have. (Now that’s a convoluted sentence.) I don’t feel badly that I am among those living in a 3 bedroom home now that my kids are grown and I don’t consider any of the rooms extra space. As has been said before, different people have differing living styles. That’s why we need places like Austin Street, Washington Place (the George ?), Northland and Riverside that have something for almost everyone. I really hope the veto referendum loses because I think living at Northland might be preferable (to me) to the other developments mainly because of its chance to be a community with the mixture of people who will live there, a senior building with an elevator, the green space, and nearby stores, so I’m hoping that when I’m ready, I can move there.
I guess part of the reason people have differing housing wants and needs is because of what they are used to. Although I have lived in just about every type of housing I can think of, I have mostly lived in large homes in areas not far from cities.
As my kids were growing up, we owned a large home in CT. I loved having a home that could be filled with people most of the time but also with enough space for me to have some quiet time to recharge. Everyone knew I took in “strays,” as my kids “joked” about a situation they didn’t wholly like, so in addition to having room to be the “hang out” house and to be a place family and friends came to visit, I had room for displaced families and semi-abandoned teens.
I did have an “aunt Bessie” type that I rented a room for in a nearby hotel when she came to visit – several times a year. So I think it’s great for developments to have small apartments that can be used for guests.
Lots of insights in all these comments, even Bugek’s. We all have a right to remain in our houses for as long as we want to.
In my neck of the woods, modest homes that once might have housed a growing family have vanished under the wrecking ball, to be replaced by mansions with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms. Oddly, the families moving in often have few or no children! Thus, affordable housing stock disappears while we all lament the lack of housing availability for all but the wealthiest members of society. It can’t be denied that speculators and house flippers are fueling this trend, which shows no sign of abating.
As the article observes, the crisis requires more than one approach to its solution. My wife and I, for example, have no intention of moving away though our children are in their thirties. We love Newton and hope that soon those empty bedrooms will fill with visiting grandchildren, God willing, and their parents. Some day, perhaps, members of the next generation will move into our home. That might be the only way they will break into Newton’s housing market!
Generally speaking (and yes, there are always exceptions!), if someone is fortunate enough to be a “senior” in Newton, they are sitting on real estate equity they have appreciated exponentially over the years and are on the back 9 of their mortgage if not paid off.
They will have plenty of options, whether it’s to downsize to a market rate apartment/condo, move to a cheaper (or warmer) city or stay exactly where they are.
Much respect our elders, and I will be one sooner than my ego will care to recognize, but let’s not allude that they are out of options and in dire straights if Northland is sized down or should be shamed into downsizing themselves.
The report mentions “incentives” to move us old folks out. Anyone, what proposals might those be?
@Matt – some of us don’t have paid off (or nearly paid off) mortgages, and while my place has gone up in value so has everything else around here. Yes, my 1/2 of a house is worth twice what I paid for it, but 2 BR condos also cost twice what they did when I bought my place and the rents for 2BR apartments are prohibitive.
I want to move to a 1-level place in the next few years and I want to stay in Newton, preferably within one village of where I am now. Each year it looks less likely that I’ll be able to do that.
My parents recently moved out a very expensive and very tiny house in Silicon Valley where when we visited we slept in a converted garage. They left California for somewhere cheaper and bought a three bedroom home with a finished basement. So they are baby boomers who did the opposite of downsize and now they can host extended family comfortably.
I hear you Meridith, I really do. In fairness we do not really know what Northland will charge for market rate prices, but in looking at Austin Street, The Kendrick (in Needham) and even Northland’s own The Merc in Waltham, more likely than not what you pay monthly for your mortgage per square foot, will be lower (much lower) than these “market rate” units.
Like San Francisco, Seattle and other cities with a large number tech, biotech and pharmaceutical companies, Boston and it’s neighboring towns will never produce enough housing to outpace demand.
Seniors like yourself (and before we can blink OURSELVES), will be competing against and endless flooded of new workers coming into the view cities that demand strong tech, biotech and pharm workers. Or, by young adults of wealth families with the knowledge on how to hide net worth to quality for the limited number of affordable units.
Given the circumstances the only way to hack the high cost of housing is to sell now, pocket the profits and when the next recession comes (as some economists say is coming sooner than later) purchase at depressed market prices.
The point is, it is not probable or realistic that we will build our way into a positive supply over demand ratio.
@Chuck what are the rents at Washington a Place?
I couldn’t find any pricing but 2 br 950 sq ft avg. that’s pretty small.
https://www.apartmentfinder.com/Massachusetts/Newton-Apartments/Washington-Place-Apartments-mh41v5k
The requisite bullet point truths of this kind of conversation:
* New construction will almost never be on the affordable end of the spectrum without some distortion of the market (subsidy, non-profit development). Blame everything from sprinklers to code compliance to the administration’s tariffs on Canadian lumber. New construction’s role in affordability is to take pressure off a tight market.
* Lack of housing mobility hurts everyone. When the market is so tight you can’t leave your current dwelling for a more appropriate one, you end up with suboptimal choices (stay put in a house that is too small/too big/not accessible, uproot to a distant community, go through the hassle of upgrading your existing property, or go into debt by paying top dollar).
* People of means always come out better. They win the bidding. They can settle for more property than they need. They can choose a smaller one and renovate. Families without means can’t. Money can’t buy happiness, but it does buy you choices. This fact drives people to higher stress: more debt, bigger mortgages,less savings, worse commutes, more hours at work. We see the impact of this stress all around us.
@Matt Lai – my housing cost is not just my monthly mortgage payments. It’s thousands in repairs/maintenance each year, property taxes, paying for lawn mowing and snow clearing (which I’m physically unable to do myself), etc. It’s also having the BR and bathroom on the 2nd floor and the laundry in the basement (not feasible to move upstairs) while I have trouble handling stairs. Those additional costs mean that my mortgage is much less than half the cost of my place.
@Rick the cost isn’t the entire equation, at least not for the person I met. They are paying for space, but also for a different quality of life. That’s their choice. The point isn’t that one thing is too expensive, nor is it that any single one of these options is the right one.
The point is that Newton spent a half-century NOT building anything and we have a need for more varied housing stock. Each time we chip away at a project or put in a roadblock we make it more expensive to build. The more expensive it is to build, the more money developers need to get out of the projects that they DO build. Let’s stop this cycle, let’s think about the people we want to have join our community as well as those we want to have stay here, and make options for them.
Standing in the way of the projects already proposed or approved makes that future much less attainable.
Maybe if developers proposed what residents want (smaller project with more affordable units), the proposal would go through faster!!!
Isabelle, it’s always interesting and annoying that folks, such as yourself, make statements about “what residents want” as if they are omnipresent or have super powers.
It’s interesting from a sociological perspective and annoying because of course you don’t have any idea what most residents of Newton want.
I own a small three bedroom cape in Newton. Purchased it before we had kids. My house is 1,000 square feet. I haven’t seen alot of stock of houses for sale like that and when they do come up, builders buy it, knock it down and build a house 3 times the size of the original house. There are two ranges in Newton. Apartment/Condo’s and single family houses $2M and above. The starter house is gone.
PS. This starter house of mine will be mine until I am 80. I love my house. The three small bedrooms. The small living room. The kitchen.
Greg, many of us have more friends and family who visit us-you clearly do not! Our extra bedrooms are occupied by our family and friends at least 10-12 weeks a year and it is a joy to have everyone around. That would be difficult in a 1000 sq, ft or a little bigger apartment and many of them drive here -what would we do with their cars?
Of course, Jess. So it may not work for you. But it will work for me. Does that make it a bad idea?
So you are the “someone” in your comment and in that case you will have plenty of apartments to choose from. Although you probably don’t mean it, you often sound as though you are speaking for the community. As of now there are plenty of available apartments at Austin St.
@Jess I don’t have any extra bedrooms in my 3 bedroom house. Honestly, an extra bedroom feels like a luxury to me. Every home is different, all of them are built differently and we all use them differently.
We cannot build to solve every problem, but a builder will research the market and build what it’s found to be †he solution that fits the most people within their target.
Chuck-to clarify, I lived in 2 and 3 family homes until I was 40 and only then moved to a single family home. No room in my house is an “extra” room and I very, very grateful to have the space to be able to house people, sometimes just visiting, sometimes when they need housing for one reason or another. It is a luxury to live in a single family home and something I appreciate every day. Again, I am eager to see who all of the new housing will attract. With affordable rents at Austin St for a 1 bedroom apart at just under $1700 plus utilities and parking, one would have to earn about $63000 a year based on the formula of spending no more than 1/3 of your pretax income. Looking at the Newton Public Teachers Salary Schedule if you have only a bachelors degree it would take about 7.5 steps to get there, with a masters degree it would only be 5 steps-not exactly affordable for our teachers.
Jess, you bring up some very good points.
Like you, we lived in 2 family homes and condos until about 9 years ago. We worked our butts off to have a single family home. It’s a luxury that was the norm for the generations the before.
Yet now we are vilified, for having a single family home, and it is implied that we should all move into apartments, and when friends visit, they should stay in another apartment in the building – one less apartment that could have gone to someone who could use it (affordable).
This whole Northland thing reminds me of Gordon Gekko from the movie Wall Street when he was trying to take over Blue Star Airlines! Purple horseshoe does NOT like Blue Star.
@Matt Lai – I didn’t see anyone vilified in the column above. I saw a description of a variety of reasons our housing market is very tight – one of them being that empty-nesters don’t downsize as much as they might otherwise because of the limited options – i.e. a chicken and egg problem.
Besides Matt, you’re not ‘an empty nester staying in you house long after it’s needed’ …. at least not yet 😉
And unlike other posters, I grew up in apartments and can compare the good and bad of them vs. home owning. My mother lives in a wonderful building in Manhattan with doormen but no luxurious add-ons and she’ll be able to live independently there long after I can no longer manage my place with stairs.
I hope that Northland is built and has apartments whose rents aren’t quite as outlandish as Austin Street’s. It sounds like someplace I’d be happy to live. I know it’s not for everyone, but neither is living in a large house. Having variety in housing options is important.