Q. Troy, With Home Values So High Recently, What's the State of Affordable Housing?
The demographics of York are changing, and those changes will be felt by everyone unless there is more affordable housing in town. In the past 10 years, seasonal residency has increased by approximately 48%, while year-round residents have only grown by 2.8%, which is well below the regional average.
Seasonal residents tend to be older and wealthier and subsequently able to pay the higher prices of homes in York. Younger people are simply priced out, and end up living in more affordable towns.
If this trend continues, York will become a town with very few young people in it, which is never a good thing. Young people are needed to create new businesses, to work in those new businesses, and to staff places like York Hospital, the schools, restaurants and shops. Without them, the town will eventually stagnate.
I’m encouraged to see that the York Housing Authority is building 60+ workforce housing apartments on Route 1 to help address the problem. Those apartments will be for people who work full-time in York and who also meet certain income criteria. We need more of that kind of opportunity for our workers if we want York to continue being a desirable place to live for all residents, seasonal and year-rounders.
