Adirondack residents struggle to find affordable housing
By Tim Rowland
The towns of Keene, Wilmington, Jay and Black Brook are typical of the Adirondack Park. Removed from the touristy villages, they are still attractive to vacationers and have a hint of the industrial past where homes are typically more affordable.
But good luck finding a home there. In an area that includes 7,000 residents, it is virtually impossible.
“There are 10 homes in Jay you can buy,” veteran Realtor Mike Straight said in early March during a video conference with the Au Sable River Valley Business Association. “There are two in Keene you can buy. There is one in Wilmington and one in Black Brook, and that’s a camp, it’s not even a home.”
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For home buyers, it’s not so much a matter of being priced out of the market anymore— it’s that there is no market.
Newly released census data tells the story. Despite the paucity of homes available for sale, population in the Adirondacks is declining, dropping from 130,137 in 2010 to 123,316 in 2020. While the state population grew by 4.2%, the Adirondacks shrank by 5.2%.
But that doesn’t mean there’s a housing surplus—just the opposite. Housing is being snapped up by urban retirees or absentee owners, many well-off enough to pay cash—often tens of thousands of dollars above list price.
For a local resident, that’s tough competition. “I wanted to stay in Lake Placid,” said Josh Pelkey, whose job as a corrections officer would, in the past, have afforded a middle-income home. “My family grew up here, but I was pretty much forced out of the market.”
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A volunteer firefighter, Pelkey is active in the community, and hears the same story repeated at the station: Those who grew up locally either reside in a family home or are pushed out of the area—or out of the park entirely—to locations where a house or apartment can still be secured.
Emily Kilburn Politi, a North Elba town councilor, has studied North Country housing for two decades, long before the pandemic pushed the issue to the fore. Finding a home priced to fit Adirondack salaries has always been challenging, but the past two years have charted new ground.
North Elba and Lake Placid recently established a six-month moratorium on short-term rentals while the town considers ways to protect long-term housing options. “We felt things were getting a little out of control—everything was becoming a short-term rental,” Politi said.
Several affordable housing developments are in the works in Lake Placid, and activists are looking at other creative options, such as deed restrictions that are similar to conservation easements: A homeowner receives a cash payment in exchange for a perpetual provision that it be sold or rented exclusively to people who work locally.
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That’s a financial counterbalance against the soaring profits to be had by selling out to an investor or turning a long-term rental into a short-term rental, which in certain locations can generate in a long weekend what a long-term rental would in a month.
Straight said he’s noticed a subtle but meaningful shift in the way people buy vacation homes. Where they used to consider their own tastes first and the property’s appeal as a rental second, now the first question is, how much will the home earn on the rental market?
If the census recorded where people lived on July 1 instead of April 1, the population of the Adirondacks might double. Hamilton County, one of two counties entirely in the park, suggests why.
The county’s median age is 56, compared to the median age in New York of 39. That indicates that people who have moved to Hamilton County the past decade are empty-nest retirees seeking to spend golden years in a mountainous retreat. Thirty-one percent are 65 or older, nearly double the statewide percentage. Yet the number of people per household, 4.7, is going up, which planners said points to multi-generational families—adult children and their children living with their parents for lack of an affordable home to call their own.
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Park-wide, nearly half the housing stock is dedicated to vacation or rental homes, effectively off limits to people who would live and work in the park full time.
Dan Cash, a senior designer for the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism, wonders whether he should have bought a few years ago, when the market was hot but not torrid.
While he’s been fortunate to have a good landlord, the house Cash rents with his wife and three children is inefficient—a January electricity bill came in at $800—and is on a busy highway that lacks the feel of a neighborhood.
The 2020 Census numbers reflect the trend toward turning housing into vacation units but do not include the 2020–22 flash point when the pandemic superheated the Adirondack housing market.
Cash said the numbers reflect the difficulties of finding and affording a home. What they don’t show is the damage done to families and schools, which in many ways are the soul of a community.
“It’s heartbreaking to see the shrinking enrollments,” he said. “There’s no permanence, no sense of putting down roots. We’re essentially gutting our communities.”
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Cash and his wife are professionals with children in the Lake Placid school system they love. It’s a community they have strived to remain a part of, but even with income that would afford upwards of a $300,000 home nothing was within reach until Lake Placid and North Elba’s Homestead Development Corp. put together a workforce housing initiative to provide homes for people who have been shut out.
Cash said he’s heard people lament that the problem is too big to be tackled with a handful of new housing developments, but he disagrees.
“It would be huge if (the schools) had 10 new students,” he said. “We always have choices, and we can make the choices that are right for the future of the community. (Otherwise) you’re just giving up on Lake Placid altogether.”
Lauren Trostle, a Lake Placid counselor at St. Joseph’s Rehabilitation Center, reported a similar experience, as houses are not affordable to buy, and property owners have moved their homes from the long-term to the short-term market. Increasingly limited by encroaching tourist traffic, her family has had to move five times in the last eight years.
“We’ve had wonderful landlords and great places to live, but we haven’t had a stable place to call home,” Trostle said. “There’s a persistent feeling that it isn’t yours.”
Not long ago, her household income of $80,000 would have allowed for a home costing $175,000 to $230,000, a range she and her significant other were considering.
“All of a sudden there was nothing on the market for less than $350,000, and the closest we could afford was in Plattsburgh,” she said. “Things feel impossible. People who live and work here have been excluded.”
That’s hurt people and businesses too. Trostle said she’s seen the effect in the workforce. “A lot of new employees have moved out of town—or they don’t take the position in the first place,” she said.
When she saw a notice about Fawn Valley, an affordable housing development—whose lower prices are predicated on their remaining workforce housing—planned for Lake Placid, Trostle said she scurried to submit an application and was thrilled when it was accepted. “I kind of felt like I’d won American Idol—I have a lot of gratitude,” she said. Among the first things she did was break the news to her 8-year-old son: He’d be able to have a dog.
Todd Eastman says
Tax second homes at a higher rate as luxuries they are.
Adkresident says
The government should take over all properties and only let approved people use them. This was done in the Soviet Union and worked well there.
Todd Eastman says
What is your solution for creating affordable housing in the Park, and how would you keep existing affordable housing stock within financial grasp of the local workers that make the towns in the Park livable and provide essential services…?
Thanks in advance for your ideas…
Billy says
Those who want an affordable house purchase a piece of land and have said house built.
If they can only afford to pay $x for the house, have the builder construct whatever they can for $x – it may be smaller than you wanted, but at least you have a place to start from.
Additions can always be made later on if you want and have funds at that time to do so.
Rather than complaining that no such house exists, make it come into existence!
John says
The reality of doing so is not that simple. I have looked into this as an option and even with a very small, basic house, it’s above a reasonable budget for my partner and I (both of whom earn around the median income for the area.) Maybe it could work for others with a higher budget.
John says
Right; the average Soviet citizen lived in a crappy, cramped apartment, while the Socialist Party hacks enjoyed beautiful homes and Dachas (vacation homes) in the country. Maybe ADKresident needs to stop trolling social media and read an actual history book on the USSR.
Vanessa B says
It’s almost like relying on market forces alone doesn’t help human well-being and community in many cases…
…I don’t mean to be flippant, and agree that local govt should step in to regulate. I am just not sure that everyone local agrees, especially at higher levels of leadership.
Travelin says
We need builders to build. Inventory shortages will continue until there is more inventory. Across the country everyone is.ecperie.cing shortages. This is not just a local problem. The only government assistance I could see helping would be tax incentives for profits on new homes or more lax financing on new construction loans.
Todd Eastman says
You do know that availability of affordable building sites factors into the costs…?
Dick Carlson says
i agree with Todd above – Tax the unoccupied at a MUCH higher rate. Sooo many homes are “held” not used, not rented, just held like it is a place to evacuate to if needed!
JKinPA says
A lot of 1 sided comments that don’t really provide any real solution.
Because I live outside the park, but have owned a Camp inside the blue line (going on 35 yrs now) you want to unfairly tax me? WTF, maybe this is the new socialism?
We already pay full taxes to local, County, School, Fire with no voting rights or representation as to where our tax dollars get spent. Never had kids in the Schools but get to provide funding for those who do, but seems of you want to over tax neighboring property owners, seems fair and legit.
Chris says
Taxing homes at different mil rates based on perception of usage is a non-starter. All people who own homes in the ADKS are paying property/school taxes. Many of those tax payers don’t use school systems, and don’t use local services 12 months per year. That’s actually a good deal for the year round residents. Assumption above is that you raise taxes on seasonal homes and that revenue somehow creates affordable homes. It doesn’t work that way. There is a housing shortage across the nation. It will take time to build our way out of it. Rising rates may put downward pressure on prices too. Raising taxes is not going to help the cause.
Sandy says
Funny how the conservative Adirondack populace would swear by the “capitalist free market,” until they become subject to it. And then, irony of irony, those who give lip service to small government, anti-socialism, are looking for a, cough cough, government solution.
Joe Potosky says
Modern double wides are most likely the answer for affordable housing in 2022.