Housing Scarcity and Preservation

Collier Neeley Executive Director

Montgomery?s housing market seems to bein a better spot than it is normally. I?m not surewhy that is exactly thecase, probably somecombination of inflation, national trends, risein demand,and out of stateinvestment Ultimately, that means a rise in homevalues, but that also means scarcity, and problems with affordability I?vestated in thepast that beforethePandemic, Montgomery was already dealing with a housing shortage, which was only madeworsein thelast threeyears or so I won? t besomeonewho uses hyperboleto stress theurgency of this situation, but it is something our community needs to takeseriously if wewant to grow.

Housing scarcity does not haveonefix and is clearly caused by a myriad of reasons However, Historic Preservation offers a solution I havebeen reading Donovan Rypkema?s TheEconomicsof HistoricPreservation thelast few days.

Montgomery was already dealing with a housing shortage, which was only made worse in the last three years or so. I won? t be someone who uses hyperbole to stress the urgency of this situation, but housing scarcity is something our community needs to take seriously if we want to grow, and preservation of historic neighborhoods could be one of the answers.

Rypkema devotes an entirechapter to ?The Preservation Economics of Housing and Neighborhoods,?which is helpful in thinking about housing in our community Hegoes through this chapter discussing thebenefits of historic neighborhoods in cities and thevalueof their preservation At thecrux of his conversation is a fairly basic understanding, historic neighborhoods arebuilt housing stock and a housethat is already built is cheaper than onethat has yet to be constructed Themaintenance, even a complete renovation, is cheaper than building a new houseof a similar size. Hecontinues, by saying new build neighborhoods cannot accommodatetheneeds of low- and moderate-incomefamilies. I agree, the model for constructing new neighborhoods does not allow for alternativeto housing types, whereas historic patterns of development included multi-family homes, providing options for anyone and everyone

Now, apartment complexes and garden home developments arebuilt separatefrom singlefamily neighborhoods, offering less opportunity for mixed incomedevelopment Today?s popular form of residential development concentrates poverty, resulting in higher crimerates, less diversity in commercial development, and over relianceon automobiles