To the editor:
Seasonal Communities is the legislation that applies as a designation for many Berkshire County towns. It must be accepted at each town’s annual town meeting. It defines attainable year-round housing, meaning housing for people who live here year-round. Seasonal Communities allows us to deed restrict housing for purchase or rental to year-round residents only. It creates a secondary real estate market, likely subsidized with and linked to down payment assistance, for locals only.
Seasonal Communities can be a counterweight to the exact problem of home affordability the unfettered market has created around here.
By this mechanism of deed restricting a portion of our housing stock to locals, this policy lowers each unit’s resale value. Permanently. A secondary real estate market in which only locals can participate would by definition lower the prices of these housing units. You won’t be able to flip them to second-home owners or use them for short-term rentals. By having only locals as the potential buyers, the market will price these units lower than the wider and unregulated real estate market. This is economics in its simplest form: supply and demand.
Seasonal Communities does require zoning reform, but changes only apply to new housing construction for year-round local housing. The lower lot size and reductions in frontage and setbacks would only apply to new homes built largely for local, first-time homebuyers. Once again, it would not impact your local zoning for market housing at all.
I have even been approached by several local homeowners who are interested in deed restricting their existing homes. So over time we link units that were deed restricted when the first-time homebuyers received their down payment assistance with others who might deed restrict their existing housing stock to “do the right thing.” Maybe that is a path to begin to see a turnaround.
A lot of folks my age would like to see their kids or grandkids choose the Berkshires as their forever home. The current housing market makes this incredibly difficult for young folks and for those early in their career who cannot afford a local house on the salary of a teacher, a paramedic, an electrician, or even a doctor. How about we change that?
An embrace of Seasonal Communities is the only strategy I know of to make homeownership realistic for many locals and to attract and retain a talent pool to keep the Berkshires working.
Patrick White
Chair, Stockbridge Affordable Housing Trust
Stockbridge
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