You might not think so if you've got a property on the market, but the high cost of housing remains a serious impediment to economic development here in the North of Boston region.
That message was brought home just this week during a presentation to a major regional business group. Those at the bottom of the economic ladder are increasingly joining the ranks of the homeless, while at the other end, major corporations trying to lure scientists, engineers and top-tier executives are having an increasingly difficult time getting them to come here.
Maureen Crawford Hentz, manager of Talent Acquisition, Development and Compliance for Osram Sylvania Inc., said she has no problem convincing top prospects of the advancement opportunities that come from working at the lighting company's North American headquarters in Danvers or the attractions of living in an area with easy access to the ocean, one of America's great cities and the recreational opportunities in Maine and northern New Hampshire. Then they find out how little house they can buy compared to where they are currently living, be it in the Midwest, the South or elsewhere.
"They're stunned at what $100,000 can buy, which is nothing," Hentz told members of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce meeting at the Salem Waterfront Hotel Wednesday morning. Prices have gone down over the past couple of years, but they're still high relative to other parts of the country.
Hentz said she's constantly being turned down by people who, even though they might be making well in excess of $100,000 a year, are put off by what they feel would be a decline in their standard of living.
"I can't get somebody to move from Cleveland to here," she lamented. (To which Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll replied, "I've been to Cleveland, and you can't touch what we have here.")
Most people living in this region wouldn't trade this area for anyplace else. And we recall former Osram Sylvania Chief Executive Dean Langford telling us years ago that once employees transferred here, they didn't want to move again.
But affordability remains a big sticking point. Beth Hogan, executive director of North Shore Community Action Programs Inc., told the same group that the North of Boston region remains one of the least affordable areas of the country when one compares average household income with the typical cost of renting an apartment or buying a house.
Clearly, supply remains a problem. What open space exists in suburban areas is jealously guarded by conservationists and others who reasonably insist those woods and meadows are essential to maintaining the character of their towns. And Rep. John Keenan, D-Salem, noted that any effort to force development on those communities via Chapter 40B or similar legislation would face very tough sledding on Beacon Hill.
Yet there are cities like Lawrence, Salem and Lynn that have underutilized properties they would love to see developed, and the infrastructure already in place to support this growth. Furthermore, the state wields a rather large stick already in the form of local aid, which it might use to encourage new housing development.
Here's a suggestion: Let those who welcome new housing be rewarded with increased state assistance, and let those who oppose it sacrifice a portion of their aid to subsidize these urban building projects.
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