“The Los Angeles Times reports that in one gated community in Hemet, east of L.A., McMansions with granite countertops and vaulted ceilings are being rented to poor families on Section 8 vouchers; according to the Washington Examiner, similar homes in Germantown, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., are being converted to boarding houses.” Brookings
“the two largest demographic groups in the country, the baby boomers and their children—together comprising half the population—want homes and commercial space in neighborhoods that do not exist in anywhere near sufficient quantity.” Brookings
“But the biggest factor, one that will quickly pick up speed in the next few years, is demographic. The baby boomers and their children, the millennial generation, are looking for places to live and work that reflect their current desires and life needs. Boomers are downsizing as their children leave home while the millennials, or generation Y, are setting out on their careers with far different housing needs and preferences. Both of these huge demographic groups want something that the U.S. housing market is not currently providing: small one- to three-bedroom homes in walkable, transit-oriented, economically dynamic, and job-rich neighborhoods.” Brookings
"The convergence of these two trends is the biggest demographic event since the baby boom itself. The first wave of boomers will be sixty-five in 2011. The largest number of millennials reaches age twenty-two in 2012. With the last of the boomers hitting sixty-five in 2029, this convergence is set to last decades. In addition to the generational convergence, the Census Bureau estimates that America is going to grow from 310 million people today to 440 million by 2050." Brookings
“When developers do propose to build denser projects, with narrower streets and apartments above retail space, they often run up against zoning codes that make such building illegal. Consequently, few compact, walkable neighborhoods have been built relative to demand, and real estate prices in them have often been bid up to astronomical heights. This gives the impression that such neighborhoods are only popular with the affluent, when in fact millions of middle-class Americans would likely jump at the opportunity to live in them.” Brookings
"Consequently, few compact, walkable neighborhoods have been built relative to demand, and real estate prices in them have often been bid up to astronomical heights."The largest demographic shift in US history has already begun. Coatesville will very shortly be exactly what that demographic is looking for.
In a nutshell, Coatesville is exquisitely positioned to be the epicenter of the next real estate boom of Chester County.
The other side to that demographic shift is that the next slums of Chester County are set to be in the rural suburbs of Chester County.
The McMansions can hold their value. Immigrant Mexican families are following in the footsteps of the Polish, Italian and other immigrant groups before them. Mexican families are already writing "white" for race on the Census forms. They are building and investing in businesses and building wealth. Right now some Mexican Immigrant families and other immigrant families with large numbers of family members are buying up 6 and 7 room homes in Chester County. Unlike most McMansions buyers they actually have a need for a home of that size. If that upward mobility of Mexican American families trend continues the market value of large homes of the outer suburbs might not plummet and they might not be infected by predator slumlords.
Another way the outer more rural suburbs can hold some of their value is to adapt mass transit such as trolley lines to suburban subdivisions. Those trolley lines would very likely connect to railroad lines in, you guessed it; Coatesville.
But the bottom line for Coatesville residents is that Coatesville has a very long head start on mass transit and walkable streets. Like I have been saying for years, "Coatesville homeowners are sitting on a real estate gold mine.
HUD will base who gets into the pilot program in the flyer below on who shows up. People using Section 8 Vouchers that want to stay in Coatesville when and if "Gentrification" occurs need to show up at this meeting, People from Coatesville that care about those that struggle to survive on low incomes need to show up at this meeting:
Kirby Hudson has been effective in changing the status quo on Section 8, redevelopment, high taxes or pretty much anything that needed attending too since this article was written. We have over 51% of Chester County's Section 8 situated within 2 square miles, the City of Coatesville. And your correct Gentrification goes against the status quo of low property prices that facilitate low rent level Section 8 vouchers. I have nine rental properties, all have gainfully employed families living in them, none of whom are Section 8 participants.
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