Economist says Belmont needs more high-end housing

27% of housing stock is manufactured and 90% of those homes are occupied year around

One of the state’s leading economists says that, despite appearances, Belmont has not really been growing much faster than the rest of the Lakes Region in recent year. The problem is, the town has a greater variety of housing than most other communities in the area — including 27-percent mobile/manufactured housing — and not much lakefront property where expensive homes can significantly add to the property tax base.

Russ Thibeault of Applied Economic Research of Laconia presented the preliminary finding of his housing study to the Planning Board at its work session in the Corner Meeting House last night. His endeavor is just the latest in series town leaders has undertaken in the last year to help it evaluate its present and future.

Thibeault began by explaining why housing is such an important part of any community: It’s the largest source of property tax revenue; it generates the greatest demand for services; it represents the largest investment of most households; it consumes the largest portion of developed land; and it affects the town and regional economy by indicating the labor force and the community’s economic composition.

But while the whole Lakes Region has been growing at a fairly steady rate since the mid-1970s, what makes Belmont unique is that it attracts more young people. So while some towns are becoming “retirement communities,” Thibeault said, Belmont still has a range of people. “You’ve got a good mixture.”

Where Belmont runs into problems is in the diversity of its housing stock, Thibeult said. While Belknap County towns average around 73-percent for single-family units, Belmont’s figure is only 59-percent; likewise, its percentage of multi-family units is only 14-percent while the county’s average is 19-percent.

Where Belmont suffers is in its “disproportional inventory of mobile homes,” Thibeault said.

“At first we thought that maybe these were seasonal homes but it turns out that 90-percent of the mobile homes are occupied year-round,” he said.

Adding to the financial stress to provide services to residents is the fact that Belmont has “more than its share of subsidized housing,” Thibeault said. So while other towns in the Lakes Region may not be making provisions for middle or lower-income residents, Belmont has 40 subsidized units for elderly people and — by the end of this s summer — it will have 88 other subsidized units.

On the opposite end of the scale, the town suffers from its relatively small amount of lakefront homes. Towns like Moultonborough can collect significant property taxes from homes valued at $300,000 and up, Belmont has relatively few homes in price range. “The median home price is 10-percent below the county and 35-percent below the state figure, and that impacts your ability to pay for services,” Thibeault told the board. The “break-even” price for a single family home — where the amount of property tax monies collected approximates the amount the town must spend to supply services — is about $270,000, he noted.

Belmont's property tax rate of $25.69 per $1,000 of valuation is said to be the 14th highest in the state. The similarly sized town of Meredith, by comparison, has a tax rate of just $10.74.

The good news is that Belmont’s average household income is higher than Belknap County’s, and closer to the state’s overall average.

And the poverty rate is lower both than the county’s and the state’s.

“So what you find is that the middle class dominates Belmont’s income distribution,” Thibeault said. “Some people have the impression that Belmont is lower-income but it’s actually primarily middle and lower income.”

“A key need is to balance the inventory of lower priced housing with more upper middle income housing,” he said. “That is a pattern that has emerged in recent years and should be encouraged to continue.”

Thibeult also suggested that setting more strict standards for new parks could decrease the number of manufactured home parks in town. (Residents today will have the chance to vote on one zoning amendment proposed the board is presenting that would add more standards to new parks.)

Thibeault said he would return in May to talk with the boar about the next portion of his study, which will focus on market affordability.