Best for sellers, but low income, tenants are squeezed

While much of the discussion about housing in the Highlands has focused on the lack of affordable apartments, home prices have risen dramatically — a growth that has ripple effects for low-income buyers and renters.

According to data compiled by the National Association of Realtors, the median list price for a home in Beacon is $537,000, up more than $100,000 from a year ago. In June of this year, each seller received the minimum asking price.

In the year In March 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic began, the median list price in Beacon was $375,000, but actual sales were closer to $252,000.

The median price in Phillipstown is $675,000, although the data favors supply over demand for buyers in the city. List prices have been flat over the past two years. Before the pandemic, homes in Phillipstown were listed for an average of $465,000 and sold for around $478,000.

Statewide, Zillow shows the “typical” price in New York is $405,000 — a 14 percent increase from a year ago. And that’s about $125,000, up significantly since the shutdown began.

Although it doesn’t provide location data, Redfin.com found that owning a home is more expensive nationwide, with an average monthly mortgage payment of $2,267, than renting, with an average monthly payment of $2,016.

In recent years, the Highlands housing market has generally favored sellers, especially after many people fled New York City during the pandemic shutdown. But when there isn’t enough provision, low-income people stumble with messy results, said Stowe Boyd, chair of Beacon’s Main Street Accessibility Committee and published city planner. Future workEconomic Journal.

“Typically, middle-class housing can’t be afforded,” he said, pointing to a recent Dutchess County Housing Needs Assessment that showed a shortfall for households making less than $50,000 a year and those with incomes. Over $100,000. The analysis calculated a shortfall of about 6,700 homes for families with incomes below $50,000.

Peter Lombardi, a consultant who worked on the study, said in a release to county lawmakers in March that “high-income households compete with each other for less resources, putting pressure on their families’ income performance.” High-income earners determine market conditions “the way other households hear them.

In other words, “everyone is being squeezed,” Boyd said.

People who want a home will rent if they can’t afford it or if there are few houses. From 2010 to 2019, Dutchess found 2,400 rental properties, almost all with incomes of at least $100,000, according to the review. With so much demand, renters in lower income brackets are at risk of being priced out again.

The average rent in the Netherlands has grown faster than inflation over the past decade, It went from $707 in 2000 to $1,220 in 2019, the most recent figure. More than half (52 percent) of renter households in 2019 were “spend-loaded,” meaning they spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing, and 86 percent earned less than $50,000 a year.