MEREDA conference highlights housing challenges and potential solutions

PHOTO / TINA FISCHER From left, panelists at Thursday's MEREDA housing-focused conference included Chris Herbert, Kyle Barker, Chris Marshall and Rebecca Hatfield.

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By Tina Fischer

"There’s no silver bullet to solving Maine’s housing shortage," national real estate expert Chris Herbert told a forum in Portland on Thursday. "It requires a buckshot approach."

Herbert, managing director of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, was the keynote speaker at MEREDA's half-day fall conference held at the University of Southern Maine.

Entitled "The Housing Crisis: Can we Crack the Code?," the event featured industry experts from architects and municipal and regional planners to developers, builders and bankers.

In his remarks, Herbert joked that his organization “is also known as the joint center for gloom and doom.”

His observations — an encyclopedic list of trends, facts and figures for the national and Maine markets, from both a historical and a present-day perspective — were, in fact, somewhat bleak.

File photo Courtesy / NBT Bank

Kenneth J. Entenmann

In an overview of the national economy, NBT Wealth Management's Kenneth J. Entenmann said that tariffs have been "manageable, because the impact hasn't been fully felt yet," and offered a bullish outlook.

“We’re far from seeing big layoffs and I don’t anticipate a recession," said Entenmann, chief investment officer and chief economist at NBT Wealth Management.

High costs for renters and buyers

Rental rates are generally far too high for much of the population, Herbert said, preventing many potential buyers from saving for a down payment.

“Affordability is really challenged right now, quite unaffordable for entry-level homebuyers,” Herbert said. “Interest rates and home prices have to come down.”

Middle-income earners — those in the $30,000 to $75,000 bracket — are the most challenged. Millennials who, more than any generation before them, have been slow to attend grad school, get married and have children — and are now finally wanting to purchase a home — are being shut out too by lack of inventory, Herbert said.

In Maine, home prices across all types are the most out of reach in Portland. But prices in Lewiston have shot up to the highest level ever recorded, according to Herbert.

And while Maine’s home prices are “a bit better” than those in other states, he said, "that’s like being the best-looking horse in the glue factory.”

Needs and solutions

A discussion on municipal challenges, moderated by Elizabeth Frazier, partner at Portland-based law firm Pierce Atwood, focused on regulatory constraints.

Vanessa Farr with Saco-based Haley Ward, Hope Eye with Eastern Maine Development Corporation and Holden Town Manager Benjamin Breadmore all said that municipalities need more money to build infrastructure.

The adoption of LD 1829 in June, which aims to increase building in Maine by permitting greater density, has created challenges, particularly for smaller towns.

“Municipalities can’t do that lift by themselves,” Farr said. “We are asking planning boards, generally made up of lay persons, to do real technical work."

Breadmore agreed.

“Smaller jurisdictions are struggling with not enough time or money," he said. "We need good lawyers to help with local ordinance drafting and we’re seeing a huge decline in municipal attorneys in the state."

Breadmore, Farr and Eye all expressed optimism about more planning assistance starting to come from the newly established Maine Office of Community Affairs.

Innovation

Emerging approaches to construction that could spur efficiency and speed were also highlighted.

Chris Marshall, development partner with Portland-based GreenMars, said, “Modular units are not always less expensive than ‘stick built,’ but it buys you a lot of time and predictability. We think it’s going to really accelerate our ability to add more housing.”

Hancock Lumber is fabricating customized wall panels and floor and roof trusses that speed construction.

Rebecca Hatfield, the company's chief strategy and growth officer, said having a facility in the state to produce more industrialized components, such as cross-laminated timber, could be a game-changer.

But that requires a $30 million to $50 million investment, "and there isn’t enough demand in Maine yet," she said. "We need more private investment."

Hancock is seeing growing interest in its ‘tiny homes’, especially among older adults looking to downsize. The units are 400 square feet or smaller and have one to three bedrooms.

"They're incredibly liveable,” Hatfield said, and can be built in four to six weeks for between $50,000 and $190,000.

Architect Kyle Barker, founding principal of Dighton, Mass.-based Primary Projects, said that co-housing — small units with shared amenities — could be one solution, along with more designs that can be replicated, to save upfront costs.

Outdated building codes are cramping construction, noted Hatfield.

"We need to look at what we need to keep people safe, but also find that sweet spot in reducing regulations to reduce costs so we can add more housing more quickly," she said.

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