Recently, I spoke with someone who has lived and worked in the valley for years and now is getting kicked out of their rental home because their landlord is selling at a price they cannot afford.
They own their own business; their kids have grown up here. Now they are faced with a brutal housing market and virtually no rental availability. This story has played out an infinite number of times here in recent years. Economists have analyzed IRS as well as census data and have shown that income inequality has been worsening since the 1970s.
This problem of home affordability is not limited to N. Conway and has nothing to do with STRs. Homes are way too expensive everywhere. Until the housing market corrects, there is nothing to be done. My own kid, recently married and with combined income of over 150K, cannot afford a home as the average price is almost 400K.
Vail's InDEED program has been a failure. After two year less than 1% of Vails Housing stock has joined the program. Vail Housing Director George Ruther said, "Interest in the program has dropped." Ruther said the Vail Local Housing Authority until several months ago would see one or two applications per meeting.
Ruther said "There haven’t been any applications for the past few authority meetings."
Vacation rentals make up less than 5% of Conway's housing stock, and they tend to be high-end Homes and Condos, not your usual "Work Force Housing". Eliminating all of them will do little to solve the affordable Housing problem we face.
What we need is less restrictive Zoning. Ask any builder in the valley if they can build a $200k home, based on Conway's building code and you will get a good laugh!
Ms. Grant sits on the Planning Board she should know better.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
(3) comments
This problem of home affordability is not limited to N. Conway and has nothing to do with STRs. Homes are way too expensive everywhere. Until the housing market corrects, there is nothing to be done. My own kid, recently married and with combined income of over 150K, cannot afford a home as the average price is almost 400K.
Vail's InDEED program has been a failure. After two year less than 1% of Vails Housing stock has joined the program. Vail Housing Director George Ruther said, "Interest in the program has dropped." Ruther said the Vail Local Housing Authority until several months ago would see one or two applications per meeting.
Ruther said "There haven’t been any applications for the past few authority meetings."
Vacation rentals make up less than 5% of Conway's housing stock, and they tend to be high-end Homes and Condos, not your usual "Work Force Housing". Eliminating all of them will do little to solve the affordable Housing problem we face.
What we need is less restrictive Zoning. Ask any builder in the valley if they can build a $200k home, based on Conway's building code and you will get a good laugh!
Ms. Grant sits on the Planning Board she should know better.
Getting serious Paul Mayer vibes. He is a local, he should know better.
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.