Cost of Connecticut homes continuing to skyrocket

October 27, 2006; As originally appeared in The Newst-Times by Robert Miller

If you are fresh out of school and ready to go off on your own, be forewarned: you’ll need luck finding a place to live in Connecticut.

The state is now experiencing an affordable housing crisis of such a proportion that about 20 percent of young adults — between 20 and 34 years old -- move out of state largely because they can’t afford to live here.

The U.S. Census reports that between 1990 and 2000, about 64,610 more people moved out of the state than moved in.

And because of a variety of reasons — the cost of land, the trend toward building giant houses on big lots, misunderstanding about affordable housing — the growth of the state’s housing stock towns has stalled. The state ranks 47th out of 50 in the number of new homes being built.

Though nationally the median price for new homes is $217,100 -- a drop of 9.7 percent from a year ago -- prices’ are much higher in Western Connecticut.

The median price of a home in the state has risen to about $300,000. In the Danbury area, it’s even higher — about $415,000 for a new house, $275,000 for a new condominium. But the median income for the region is about $75,000 to $80,000— far less than what’s needed to pay a McMansion mortgage.

“ Housing costs are increasing at three times the rate of wage increases in Connectlcut,” said Joan Carty, executive director of the Housing Development Fund, speaking Thursday at a symposium on affordable housing at the Sheraton Danbury Hotel. “We’re losing our nurses and teachers and young college graduates.”

The symposium—sponsored by the Housing Development Fund and the United Way of Northern Fairfield County — brought both national and state experts on affordable housing together with town leaders and planning and zoning officials to begin work on a regional strategy to address the issue here.

The issue is a broad one. The state’s lack of affordable housing affects businesses having trouble hiring workers who can’t afford to live here. It also keeps new firms from relocating here.

The lack of affordable housing also has environmental impact. It forces people to move to places where they can afford to live and then commute to jobs an hour or more away. That means more vehicles on the road and more pollution in the air. It also creates the pattern of sprawl that’s eating up open space as high housing prices in the established suburbs around a city force people to move farther into the countryside.
And it’s not just that the state lacks apartments or starter homes. According to Allan Mallach, research director of the National Housing Institute, the state needs more housing for young singles, middle-class families and established residents.

“ We need to create housing in Connecticut for all the different levels,” he said.

Mallach and others at the meeting are proponents of what they call “inclusionary” zoning — using town planning and zoning regulations to promote affordable housing. Sometimes, this can be done by requiring developers to dedicate a certain percentage of the new units they’re building to affordable housing.