Experts: Local housing crisis will worsen without more units on less land

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HAMPTON ROADS (WAVY) — President Trump says he wants to ban institutional investors from buying up houses, and while that’s not a problem in our area, other factors are keeping first-time homebuyers on the sidelines.

Phil Kazmierczak, president of the Hampton Roads Realtors Association, wants to see more units on fewer acres. The mixed-use developments of The Cascades at the intersection of Centerville and Volvo in Chesapeake, along with the Summit Pointe complex in Greenbrier, would be examples of retail on the bottom and residential on top.

“Anytime we build a shopping center, we can be putting housing on top of them with condos or apartments,” Kazmierczak said Friday, “areas where people are going to want to live and work, because we don’t want people to have to drive 10 miles to get to work.”

Thaler McCormick, who runs the nonprofit ForKids, also chaired a task force that examined the shortage of affordable homes in Hampton Roads. She said her housing crisis hotline has been unusually busy.

“Usually the holidays and the start of the New Year are quiet, but it has been exactly the opposite right now,” McCormick said. “We’ve had 2,200 calls in four days.”

McCormick said with home prices where they are, starter homes have become a non-starter. The current median price for a home in Hampton Roads is now more than $400,000.

“We’ve got folks that are ready to buy, and pay down their debt, and improve their credit scores, but they just can’t find units they can afford,” she said.

Kazmierczak predicts the rise of places with multiple units above street level.

“We need to get everyone on board with that,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of people (who think) ‘not in my backyard’. They don’t want mixed-use in their areas. But if you want to take a look at affordability, you have got to be willing to make changes.”

Both Kazmierczak and McCormick agree that incentives are needed for buyers, sellers and builders alike.

McCormick said higher housing costs are coming at a time with other bigger bills.

“What we’re seeing now is a perfect storm of lack of units and escalating utility costs,” she said. “So we’ve got a lot of folks struggling to pay utility, child care, food and their housing.”

“We need to look at buyers and sellers separately,” Kazmierczak said, pointing to the More Homes on the Market Act, currently in the House of Representatives. “It increases the cap on capital gains taxes from $250,000 and $500,000 for single and married filers, and it increases it to $500,000 for single and $1 million for married filers. That would encourage sellers to sell.”

President Trump is expected to unveil his proposals to help first-time homebuyers later this month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

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