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I think it goes beyond Costcos and housing developments. I think she was referring to the apartment buildings going up in Downtown and Collegetown, as well as some housing developments outside of the city.
There has also been hotels and company buildings that have been built or are being built.
NYSERDA Multi-Family incentives and a new "Me" generation that cannot cope with a fixer upper for starts. Second, how about a raised rail, and a through highway without stop signs? If anything Ithaca is limited in 'sprawl' and locals willing to build new Mc Mansions. My comment here is a general observation, but I do have a contingency of city planners that would be willing to work with the county and city, again.
Proposals are great, however, I wouldn't get excited until permits are issued and construction actually begins. We know how the city government drags it's feet. And it's more apartments....whoopie....where are the single family homes? Keep waiting for them around Ithaca and sadly there's not much new construction of houses.
Oh yeah, I'm aware of the long drawn out process for approval and actually starting.
But there may be hope for the future (from the Ithaca Voice):
I don't have any problem with all the apartment proposals for the downtown and Collegetown areas. Good way to increase the available space in the city (going up and not out).
As far as single family homes, I think the Town of Ithaca may be the best place (along with other parts of the county) to see some growth in that housing supply. I just don't know if developers are waiting to see how well the economy does in the next couple of years.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheBreeses
NYSERDA Multi-Family incentives and a new "Me" generation that cannot cope with a fixer upper for starts.
I take some umbrage to this.
A lot of this "Me" generation is broke. A fixer upper requires a reliable job and some time apart from said job(s) to actually fix a home. Secondly, in general the previous generation failed at teaching the current generation how to do anything.
My sister and I are either side of 30. We're apparently on the older end of "Millenials" according to big own-butt-sniffing corporations and publications. "Millenials" are allegedly the "Me" generation you refer to.
We both work and collectively we just barely make it through. We do not have excessive superfluous habits; we both grew up in poverty and have learned to live with less, and find entertainment while saving a dime or two.
Fact is for a lot of people the economy is just plain old tough right now. The classic American fixer-upper approach is not fiscally viable for a vast majority of young adults.
I am aware that there are spoiled brats who are now adults, but to label an entire demographic based on them alone is short sighted. The term "Me" generation is insulting and dismissive to those of us in the age group who are not lay-abouts.
That said, NY state in particular can be a money pit nightmare for fixing old homes as well. I've known older members of my family who moved back to (or simply to) PA because of high land related costs here in NY in similar situations.
I graduated from Cornell in 1981, and I can't think of any new construction in the entire City of Ithaca (including Cornell) and surrounding areas in those four years.
The Commons was half empty, the old Victorian houses near downtown looked like they hadn't been painted in 50 years, Collegetown was a slum, and there wasn't a single decent hotel other than the ugly Cornell Statler, which was demolished I believe in the 1990's.
A lot of this "Me" generation is broke. A fixer upper requires a reliable job and some time apart from said job(s) to actually fix a home. Secondly, in general the previous generation failed at teaching the current generation how to do anything.
My sister and I are either side of 30. We're apparently on the older end of "Millenials" according to big own-butt-sniffing corporations and publications. "Millenials" are allegedly the "Me" generation you refer to.
We both work and collectively we just barely make it through. We do not have excessive superfluous habits; we both grew up in poverty and have learned to live with less, and find entertainment while saving a dime or two.
Fact is for a lot of people the economy is just plain old tough right now. The classic American fixer-upper approach is not fiscally viable for a vast majority of young adults.
I am aware that there are spoiled brats who are now adults, but to label an entire demographic based on them alone is short sighted. The term "Me" generation is insulting and dismissive to those of us in the age group who are not lay-abouts.
That said, NY state in particular can be a money pit nightmare for fixing old homes as well. I've known older members of my family who moved back to (or simply to) PA because of high land related costs here in NY in similar situations.
Along with this, I'll add a few more lpoints as to why there's a local lack of new single-family for-sale housing.
For one, this area has been settled for over 200 years. Much of the land has been subdivided, over and over. There are few land parcels large enough for a large home subdivision, and to reassemble a parcel is a lot of time and effort. Increasingly, we're also seeing a trend to sell the development rights and conservation easements for the remaining large parcels to land trusts, which prevents development.
For two, materials and labor costs. Ithaca loves its "centrally isolated" location away from the interstates, but that makes logistics more difficult, and more expensive. Materials are harder to get and tend to be more expensive. Likewise with construction labor, which is in limited supply at the moment. It's not uncommon for larger contractors to bring in labor from Syracuse or Rochester. Those with a trade specialty can afford to charge a premium, which is great for them, but not so great for keeping construction costs down.
For three, most builders on the market in Ithaca either tend to be mom-and-pops with few assets to leverage when plating and prepping large subdivisions and lack the opportunities of scale to keep costs down, or high-end homebuilders who do 3,000+ SF models for $500k or more. I don't think there's a single homebuilder in Tompkins County who could take on anything more than a $3 million project without outside help, which makes things more complicated, and complexity scares a lot of them off. There's no Ryan Homes or Lennar to supply a high output of new homes in middle-income price ranges.
For four, this is Tompkins County, New York State. This area has enough red tape to wrap all of Santa's Christmas gifts. A combination of state and local regulations create an additional burden one doesn't see in Sunbelt states, or at least to the same degree. It was done with good intentions - safety, ecological sensitivity, fairness to local workers and unions - but it still drives up the costs, which get passed on to the consumer.
Today, I got to see the Mayor, Syvante, accept a $50k check for 2017 Community WINS at the Bernie Milton Pavilion. There were cupcakes, so I had to take part ;-)
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