‘Even When You’re Not Working, You’re at Work’
Hudson Valley, a 10-county region home to the Catskill Mountains, Storm King Arts Center and a number of wineries and breweries, is a few hours drive away for New York City residents.
There was always some push-and-pull between locals and the city day-trippers and country-home weekenders, a boost for the economy as long as the visitors were in moderation. The pandemic upended that fine balance: About 49,000 New York City residents moved to the Hudson Valley in 2020, according to the nonprofit research organization Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress.
The sudden increase and ensuing bidding wars for housing stock have driven up home sale prices and rents. Last year, the median sale price for a home in Ulster County was $349,900, up nearly $100,000 from 2019, according to the Ulster County Board of Realtors.
The available housing options in Ulster County are not only low, but old — the median year of when homes were built there is 1969, according to Point2 Homes.
“The housing issue is to the point that we had many of our frontline workers, from grocery store workers to health care workers, are not able to afford to live in the same community they’ve risked their lives to protect,” said Patrick Ryan, 40, the Ulster County executive.
Some businesses have been dealing with the issue for decades.
Mohonk Mountain House, a 265-room, 153-year-old resort in the Shawangunk Mountains, has offered employees housing since the 1880s, said Jon Levin, Mohonk’s director of human resources. The hotel employs nearly 700 workers, and several had to stay through lockdown, even while the resort closed its doors to guests, because they had nowhere else to go.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
