Housing, and the cost of regulation

[KBCraig]

It's a long article about housing being priced out of reach, and government's effect on the bottom line. It's worth pointing out that housing prices in NH are mostly affected by the governments of MA, NY, and VT creating tax refugees.

I've quoted the most relevant section, but it's all worth reading.

http://gamma.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=cf9013eb-e6c6-4be3-92d1-627f37a35ccf

Housing prices are high for reasons besides demand. In a study released in March, economist Lisa Shapiro cited limits on the number of building permits, large required lot sizes and infrastructure requirements such as roads and sewers.

Chinburg said the cost of environmental and other regulations has risen from $2,000 to $15,000 per house in recent years on the Seacoast. He said he had to install a special $25,000 culvert to encourage frogs to cross under a road in one recent project.

"They got across the road before," he said.

[AlanM]

Large lot size requirements are the #1 thing driving up costs. They also require more roads to service the larger lots. Another thing is the town/city conservation groups buying up available land, which increases costs for the remaining land.

[Kat Kanning]

Wow, that's incredible 

[Pat McCotter]

Yeah, and Keene has less police officers than they want because of it.
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Keene City Manager John MacLean has lost several police candidates who couldn't find housing they could afford on a starting annual salary in the low $30,000 range. The median sales price for a house in Keene last year was $180,000 ? too expensive for that income level, according to labor and housing experts.
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[Kat Kanning]

A silver lining.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Except that the cops the do have probably perform a lot of overtime at time & 1/2 and double time.