![]() The real estate agent resident admitted she can only afford to live in Little Compton because she rents from family. That has raised prices for everyone.Ī house she showed before the pandemic that was in the mid-$400,000 range is almost $700,000 today, she said. “It wasn’t this, you know, super popular place for people to move to.” When she spoke to ecoRI News in early February, there were only nine Little Compton houses on the market.ĭuring the pandemic, she saw a lot of cash offers - above asking price - from buyers who lived out of state and wanted to escape city life. “Before the pandemic there was always inventory in Little Compton,” she said. ![]() “But I still have always dreamed of being able to raise my kids in Little Compton.”Īnother Little Compton resident, who works as a real estate agent in the area and asked not to be named for fears of professional repercussions, said the market has exploded since March 2020, raising prices and leaving fewer houses for sale. “I’ve kind of let it go,” Jennings said. ![]() ![]() She ultimately moved to an apartment in Warren. Everyone knew everyone.īut just like other young, would-be residents, she found cost to be a major barrier.Ĭombined, Jennings said she and her partner make about $100,000 a year, but that wasn’t enough. With her friends, she had crossed through barnyards to get to each other’s houses, petting the cows along the way. “So, we’ll see.”ĭanielle Jennings, 30, grew up in Little Compton and had also recently wanted to move back with her four kids, so they could grow up like she did. “Hopefully, the ship has not sailed because I still love it there,” she said. Price was a factor in her and her husband’s decision to move. The former resident had rented in town for seven years, drawn to Little Compton for work, before deciding recently to move to a more northern part of the state. “I know a few other people who have managed to find reasonable housing, but it’s few and far between,” said one former resident who still works for a farm in town and asked not to be named for fear of professional repercussions. (Colleen Cronin/ecoRI News)įor three months, the family exclusively searched in Little Compton, but by February of last year, it seemed like buying a house here was an impossible task and they realized they had to look outside of town.īy March, they had purchased a house in nearby Westport, Mass. Little Compton has many farms, like this one on West Main Road, but little in the way of affordable housing. When she first started looking, her and her husband’s budget was about $350,000, but as they searched and couldn’t find anything, that number kept creeping up, and quickly rose to $420,000.Įven with the higher ceiling, she’d put a bid on a house for the asking price, only to lose to a cash offer that was tens of thousands of dollars more, she said. Their family history, coupled with the fact that Magnuski, 36, works in town, and her kids, who both have special needs, love the small size and familiarity of the Wilbur School, made staying seem like the best choice. The wife of a “generational townie,” Magnuski’s family lived in an old farmhouse owned by her in-laws, making her children the sixth generation to live there. Jenna Magnuski started looking for a house in Little Compton in November 2021. Several people said they had already been priced out of town or soon would be.Īlthough not everyone agrees on what to do, most agree the town has to do something. Many residents are cost-burdened, with 28% of homeowners and 30% of renters in town spending more than 30% of their income on housing. The median cost of a single-family home in Little Compton was $797,000 last year, the third highest in the state, according to HousingWorks. The lack of affordable housing, as defined by the state, is paired with a lack of attainable housing, as defined by lifelong, longtime, and aspiring Little Comptonites who spoke to ecoRI News. A unit is affordable if it receives a subsidy from a federal, state, or local source and has an affordability restriction in place for at least 30 years. According to state law, most cities and towns must maintain 10% of their year-round housing stock as affordable housing. There are nine long-term affordable housing units in town, comprising about half a percent of Little Compton’s housing stock, making Little Compton the municipality with the smallest percentage of affordable housing in the state, according to HousingWorks RI 2022 Housing Fact Book. For a median-income household, an affordable home would cost no more than $1,421 a month. For a minimum-wage worker with a full-time job, an affordable rent would be no more than $468 a month. Mushen is one of the few Little Compton residents who lives in affordable housing, which is defined by the state as costing no more than 30% of a person’s gross income, according to HousingWorks RI.
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