Affordable housing part of keeping young people in RI

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With all of the furor surrounding the economy and job creation in Rhode Island, another critical issue is being ignored: the cost of housing. In addition to getting a job, our children need a place to live other than with mom and dad. If they are to become productive members of society and pay taxes, they need a house, apartment or condominium. A place to raise a family.

The Rhode Island housing market is not a good place to look for a starter home. It is very expensive compared to the rest of the country and most low cost homes are in dire need of repairs and updating because of their age. Rhode Island, to its credit, has made a good faith effort at affordable housing. Unfortunately what Rhode Island classifies as “affordable” still means expensive in terms of the United States as a whole. A condo development with $500,000 units can have ten percent at $350,000 but that doesn’t pay the mortgage, condo fees, utilities or property taxes for the low-income buyer. A small ranch or cape in Rhode Island is around $250,000 to $300,000, depending on location. Anything under that probably needs a lot of work. A similar house in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and most Midwest is half the cost.

For most people, their home will be their largest asset during their lifetime. If they are forced to rent because the cost of owning is too high, they don’t acquire equity in their housing and less likely to become part of a community. Our young people are leaving Rhode Island in droves because they can find much less expensive housing as well as jobs elsewhere. This is one of the reasons Rhode Island has an aging and declining population. This does not bode well for the future of our state. Rhode Island housing took a big hit in the crash of 2008 and we have still not recovered. Home values were hit hard, but even as assessments went down, property tax rates went up resulting no relief for homeowners and an even worse market for buyers and sellers. Today’s historically low rates don’t help when the banks will not lend you the money to buy your first home. You need impeccable credit and a significant down payment. In today’s market, you also need a job to buy a home even if it is a small apartment. Having a reputation as one of the least business friendly states will not attract employers who might provide good paying jobs that would help our children stay in Rhode Island.

Unfortunately, as we learned in 2008 easy credit and no down payment only leads to foreclosures when you can’t pay the mortgage on a house you cannot afford. While not everyone can own a home, we need to find ways to make it easier in Rhode Island. Affordable housing and lower property taxes should be a priority. Thousands of bills are proposed every year for innumerable causes like calamari as the official RI appetizer. As far as I can determine, there are no significant bills being proposed in the Legislature to help the housing situation. It seems preserving the master lever is more important than the economy, jobs or housing. Of course, keeping the master lever does ensure the Democrats in charge of the Legislature will retain their jobs. It will not however provide homes and jobs for those starting out or those at the lower end of the economic scale. We need to make sure the next generation has a job and a place to live or they won’t be around to help pay anyone’s pension. You can only expand the tax code so far “before you run out of other people’s money?” as Margaret Thatcher once said. Business as usual will not solve this growing problem.

Frederick J. Wilson III of Wakefield is a former CapCities/ABC newspaper publisher and in the New England Press Association and Rhode Island Press Associations Halls of Fame as well as the RI Aviation Hall of Fame.

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