Real estate and mortgage professionals really need Millennials to start buying houses and condominiums at a more rapid clip, and they just don’t seem interested.
The reasons for this are well documented: Millennials are more migratory than earlier generations, and they are getting married later in life and starting families later, so a single-family house with a yard in a town with good schools is just not a priority for many. It must be noted as well that Millennials are saddled with an extraordinary amount of school debt, which can result in debt-to-income ratios that do not qualify for mortgage financing.
Unfortunately for those who do qualify, there isn’t a lot of housing in Greater Boston that appeals. Millennials are looking for walkability, proximity to public transit, short commutes and plenty of nearby amenities. These perks are in short supply in the area’s suburbs, let alone the exurbs. They do exist, of course, in the city itself and in the bordering cities and towns (except for the short commute), and thus the median prices in these areas are skyrocketing as buyers vie for a small supply.
The housing tangle in which we find ourselves is in some ways the result of forces beyond our control. Who could have predicted the kinds of housing Millennials would prefer and the credit crunch that forced development to come to a screeching halt? Who thought this generation would graduate from college with outsize debt into a terrible job market?
Yet other factors were certainly anticipated and the failure to address them is simply shameful. Our crumbling roads and bridges, the shambles of the MBTA and commuter rail, the lack of homebuilding in the area long before the recession, the exorbitant cost of land and development that makes all but luxury condos nearly impossible to build – these are challenges that we have the means to address.
And yet we do not. A little here, a little there – some 40B development here, a couple of overlay districts there, some roadwork here, an added train station there. Some cities and towns have seen the writing on the wall and are doing their best to catch up – Framingham in particular has recognized the need for a vibrant downtown and the economic benefits of its commuter rail station. No less miraculous, the town is actually doing something about it – it has passed zoning reform and is currently addressing the traffic flow issues in the town center while pursuing additional avenues of growth.
But this patchwork approach to addressing what is now a problem and will become a crisis is clearly not sufficient. Home rule – by which cities and towns have much control over what takes place within their borders – is laudable and quite democratic, but leaves much to be desired when addressing regional issues. Massachusetts is not a loose collection of 351 municipalities – it is a commonwealth. It is past time we started acting like one.
