Stockbridge — With the average Stockbridge home value up 2.2 percent, year over year, and hitting a value of $736,000, the town’s Select Board acted November 21 to approve a path forward that town officials hope will provide some relief to the municipality’s soaring real estate prices.
Following a presentation by Stockbridge Affordable Housing Trust Committee member Jan Ackerman, all three members of the Stockbridge Select Board green-lighted the Town of Stockbridge Housing Production Plan. In the works for 18 months, the plan aims to help the town “better understand the current housing dynamic, identify priority housing needs, and develop a roadmap for addressing these needs over the short and longer term.”
The Select Board’s stance was buoyed by Ackerman’s assurance that, in the approval process, the group would have some control over state-assisted affordable-housing projects that move forward.
Developing a housing plan
The Stockbridge plan wasn’t developed in a vacuum, Ackerman said, but involved community input in its design, including a July 2023 housing workshop, housing survey, and community forum as well as numerous Planning and Select board meetings. Along with a professional housing-needs assessment, the plan states the type of housing programs needed in the community: home ownership, rental, and maintenance.
The report produced a suggested housing-production objective for Stockbridge of identifying five units annually or 25 units over the next five years. Ackerman said there is no plan currently as to where those units will be developed.
Stockbridge’s current 1,638 homes represent only a three percent increase over the past decade, illustrating the area’s slow housing growth, with about half of that tally being seasonal or second-home owners, Ackerman said.
“The affordable housing gaps are higher now than they were 10 years ago, meaning that the median price was, a year ago or so, $575,000 on the market for a single-family house, and it’s probably higher than that now, extremely higher now,” she said, estimating $850,000 as the median value. The 2021 median household income in Stockbridge was $46,500, down from $55,000 in 2010, Ackerman said.
She defined “affordable housing” as targeting households with incomes at or below 80 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI).
In Stockbridge, applying the affordable-housing definition to a two-person household buying a single-family home, the sales price would be at or below $285,000, or $1,450 monthly for a rental unit, Ackerman said. “If it were a two-family house that they bought because you could rent out the other part of it, that would allow them to buy up to $437,000 for a two-family home,” she said. The housing plan advocates that the best option for local first-time home buyers is to invest in a two-family unit, living in one unit while renting out the other unit.
“How do you get to the point where somebody can buy a house with $280,000?” Select Board member Ernest J. Cardillo asked Ackerman, who responded that the buyer would need supplemental funding.
Board member Patrick White pointed out that the town is part of a group of municipalities pursuing state subsidies, or grants, for homeowners to help with their home repairs, with those funds aimed at “deal[ing] with folks who already live here in a big, huge way.”
Tax credits may also provide help, Ackerman said, while White commented that a new “seasonal designation” for the town might be an answer but needs town meeting approval. “Our goals are to keep the teachers and the firefighters and the police and all the other municipal workers in this community,” White said.
Select Board members noted that the plan is keyed in on balancing Stockbridge’s small-town feel while providing more housing opportunities for individuals and families who can’t afford the area’s high prices. Ackerman said the idea was initiated following September’s plan draft. “We added some wording to emphasize that we want to have create[ed] housing that is harmonious with the small-town character of Stockbridge,” she said.
The new draft also addressed short-term rentals and their effect on the availability of local housing. “A local Realtor indicated that the introduction of short-term rentals brought about significant changes in the housing market as more owners, particularly second homeowners, were attracted to the rental income without the typical wear and tear and lack of access to their homes involved with longer-term rentals,” the plan stated. “This further drove up prices.”
Startling revelations
Affordable Housing Trust Committee member Mark Mills said he was “struck” by some of the text in the plan. He purchased his home in 2002 before becoming a full-time resident in 2014 and reflected that, in that time, the physical nature of the town hasn’t changed much, “but it’s a very different mix of people than it was 20 years ago.” “The town is older; it’s richer; there’s more second-home owners; there are people struggling at the lower end—they may be older people, tough on their incomes, keeping up with their properties is difficult,” Mills said.
With the disparity between the slight rise in income and the sharp uptick in housing prices, he said the community has “reached this point where the housing is getting out of reach.”
As Mills noted, the housing plan provides a number of telling statements about the town: Housing prices have risen faster than incomes; about 31 percent of Stockbridge households were spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing, with about 12 percent at 50 percent of their income; and the median resident age shifted from 41 years old to 60 years old between 2010 and 2021.
For single-family-home buyers, a median household in 2022 could afford a $386,500 home with 80 percent financing; however, that year, the average single-family home boasted a $575,000 price tag.
For renters, the situation is dire, with no listings at market rate in May 2023 and income requirements way above realistic numbers to qualify for housing.
Since 2010, the share of Stockbridge residents living in poverty has increased to 14.2 percent, higher than county and state levels in 2021, with the gap between median renter household income and owner income widening during that period.
The plan data found the town harbored relatively low local job wages, declining public school enrollment, and a high proportion of residents with special needs. When added to the substantial slowdown in housing growth and more seasonal or second-home owners or renters, there was no surprise that the document showed only 85 total sales between January 1, 2021, and July 1, 2023. Out of those sales, 24 sales involved full-time residents, with the remainder serving as second homes or investment properties.
Stockbridge’s affordable-housing communities to date
As of March 2023, Stockbridge has four Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI) programs totaling 113 rental units. At 53 units, Heaton Court is the town’s largest and, together with Stockbridge House’s eight units, can continue to serve as affordable housing in perpetuity. Both are owned and managed by the Stockbridge Housing Authority and are targeted to those aged at least 60 years old. These units rarely turn over, and their communities have long waitlists, the plan states.
However, Pine Woods Apartments’ 30 units will end as a subsidized program in 2055. DDS Group Homes’ 22 units in Riverbrook are dedicated to women with disabilities.
Housing strategies and plan goals
The housing plan looks ahead to the next five years by building housing capacity through educating the community and capitalizing the Affordable Housing Trust and other financial resources to fund its endeavors.
Ackerman said property at 14 Pine Street, the former Berkshire Waldorf High School currently listed for sale, might be a good fit to be converted into affordable housing.
Besides identifying STRs, the plan provides zoning strategies that include adopting regulations for accessory dwelling units, or additional rental housing that exists on a single-family home property; investigating different types of housing; and promoting multi-family and mixed-use development near downtown. Development strategies suggest the town partner with developers on privately owned or donated property. “We don’t have those identified right now of what those would be,” Ackerman said.
Other development possibilities include reviewing the public property already owned by Stockbridge, with an eye toward converting those sites to affordable housing, such as the existing firehouse that might be left after the town creates a new public safety or emergency services facility, she said.
Acknowledging that an affordable housing plan may be met with local objections, the document confirms to readers that “housing needs can be addressed in the context of keeping what is best about Stockbridge intact.”
“More people are recognizing that the new kindergarten teacher, their grown children, or even their elderly neighbor may not be able to afford to live or remain in the community without some financial or technical assistance,” the plan states.
