freedraw t1_j7neco8 wrote on February 8, 2023 at 1:23 AM

Reply to comment by SuzyTheNeedle in These housing numbers are insane. In some towns the cost to buy a house is 10x the average salary. by LopsidedWafer3269

Yes it’s nationwide, but it’s much worse in the greater Boston area than most major metros save SF and NYC.

SuzyTheNeedle t1_j7nqzry wrote on February 8, 2023 at 2:58 AM

It’s awful. We lived on the Outer Cape. Rent was insane IF you could find a place. Year round was even worse. At the time the cheapest single family in town was a year down for 350k on barely enough land for the building and a parking spot. Came up to SW NH and got a home for half that that want a tear down and had .2 acres.

freedraw t1_j7nzluv wrote on February 8, 2023 at 4:07 AM

Oh, the cape is in a terrible bind. The entire economy is geared toward tourism, but the residents refuse to allow anything to get built where all those restaurant/hotel/retail workers can actually afford to live. This article from the Globe recently about Barnstable residents trying to stop an old closing golf course from being turned into apartments makes it clear how bad the NIMBYism is there.

SuzyTheNeedle t1_j7pccc6 wrote on February 8, 2023 at 1:32 PM

What they need are dorm-style accommodations, on the bus line so people can get to town to work. They've had opportunities to do that out where we were in Provincetown. Nope. The Air Force Base would be perfect except for the (so I'm told) pollution/toxic nature of the area. The old school atop the hill would have been great. Heck the development between Cumberland & Stop & shop could have been dorm style but they chose apartments. Not the best use of square footage IMO. But hey build that shiny new police department! The problem in Ptown is too many very wealthy 2nd (and 3rd) homeowners and VRBOs. There's not much left for the townies. We left after looking to buy back in '13 because we started to sense that our landlord wanted to cash out.

Everyone is clutching their pearls while they bitch about restaurants & bars being understaffed OR they're bitching because the kids from eastern block countries are "taking 'murican jobs" (not true). Meanwhile seasonal workers live in what's available, often really run down with questionable sanitation/hygiene facilities and sketchy as hell. I'm thinking of that "motel" in Truro that I believe was shut down a while back. The dark dirty secret of tourist towns. But hey, gotta have that Cosmo right?