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[deleted] t1_j4sxgc9 wrote

This is what happens when we don’t allow any new housing to be built. The state hasn’t had any new high density rentals built in years; they’re all redone buildings like these, or the units arriving in the Superman Building in Providence.

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Mountain_Bill5743 t1_j4tsxun wrote

It's a lot more than that. I've lived here for about a decade, and things were pretty stable for the first several or so years. Stuff would go up $100 or $200, but you could just shift neighborhoods a bit and be fine and that is how it was for friends who lived here long before me. My rent only ever went up $50 in 7 or so years over several moves into larger places, which is not what I would expect if this was mostly due to supply.

The biggest factors seem to be low interest and a fluid economy. For the first 7 years here, there wasn't so much near interest free money to drive up prices and people generally worked locally apart from areas like sales. If you worked in software engineering, you made a local salary that was market adjusted-- you didn't make a salary for Cupertino. People did commute to Boston, but it took major commitment. I personally know multiple people who commuted 60 miles each direction to their careers for over a decade-- it takes a certain type.

If remote work vanished tomorrow, a lot of people would stay or super commute, but a lot of people would leave rather than commute 3 hours a day or cut their career options and salary in half. Most career professionals in the 2010s I met here left if they wanted to climb the corporate ladder and many found a lot of success in major cities.

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johnsonutah t1_j4v4h5v wrote

Agree. Side note - it’s sad that a 60 mile commute turns into more than an hour. That’s really not far highway driving. Traffic and a lack of public transport do the north east dirty

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[deleted] t1_j4vvave wrote

A lot of people move here and park-n-ride RIPTA to the Providence train station. It’s a reasonably easy commute to Boston from there.

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Mountain_Bill5743 t1_j4xfja1 wrote

All of these people admitted that this commute funded their large house, stay at home parent, sailboat. So it wasn't an issue of necessity, but maximizing the situation for splurges. One person I know did the commute to live close to their (local) extended family but could have afforded to move close to work.

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johnsonutah t1_j4xh39l wrote

I’m in the same situation as that one person. I’m really just lamenting our poor infrastructure in the northeast

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[deleted] t1_j4vv7fb wrote

Interest rates are at historic highs, and so are housing prices.

The problem is that there’s lots of demand for housing as people move here, and NIMBYs have prevented new housing from being built. The spillover from Mass, which has an even worse NIMBY problem, has sent prices through the roof here as well.

Thus, an 800-square-foot bungalow in Pawtucket that needs $100K in renovations has gone from $65K in 2001 to $350K in 2023.

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Mountain_Bill5743 t1_j4w3g06 wrote

Absolutely, but pre covid, housing limitations hadn't really spiked prices post 2008. Rental rates were pretty stagnant. There are highs, but the prolonged historically low interest rates already lead to a runaway price increase especially when coupled with people showing up with remote work with salaries that are unheard of locally. Rhode Island had vacancy issues, but it was more manageable when examining the population that actually works in Rhode Island or somewhat locally pre covid. The city was never conceptualized to support random pockets of West coast workers or a disproportionate swath of Boston and thousands from NYC and it has never had the economy to do so either. So these issues aren't mutually exclusive, but covid was undeniably the major force acting on it (interest rates + remote work) making a situation no one could predict. It's not like RI is unique given that every mid sized city in the country experienced a crunch when demographically pushed to their limits. I had friends with escalation clauses buying homes in rural midwestern towns on cash offers. So building is going to help us get out of this, but as long as remote workers with insane salaries keep piling into this state it isn't going to fix the problem that covid primarily created (this has been documented in academia). Even the most resilient and building friendly states (obv not this one) aren't prepared to double their population overnight, especially when lockdowns and supply chain shutdowns halted construction projects during the peak.

It's like if you cooked for 10 people, but has 15 RSVP- you were always going to be stretched. But then 50 show up and complain that you only had the oversight to cook for 10, knowing 15 would come, but lacking any introspection about their own completely unexpected presence.

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magnoliasmanor t1_j4vc0nv wrote

And OP has been on here for months bitching about developments followed by bitching about rents.

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