It sounds like an interesting idea. However, I wonder if these are considered short term housing options by people looking to get something larger. I hope they put in some decent landscaping and outside areas so they look more homey than just a bunch of houses next to each other

Developers build tiny-home RENTAL neighborhood in Dover to help address housing shortage.

The design is fantastic. I wish WMUR had put up a schematic. It very tastefully designed with the cottages on the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the parcel from the road. The rear (woods) was put into conservation and backs up to the Bellamy River. The owners have a massive list of wanna-be tenants with no way to accommodate them. The goal for the owners and for the state is to see more of these units built to combat our workforce crisis. The next step is to build affordable two and three bedroom units so families can utilize. The real issue is finding land in desirable and accommodating communities. Dover certainly is that; they embraced this project and seek to do more like it.

Downtown Dover has an Amtrak station that's surrounded by ten acres of wasted space that would be much more valuable to redevelop into housing than this.

It's crazy how little development occurs in any of NH's walkable downtown areas. Old photos often make it look like they swapped the horses out for cars while leaving everything else the same.

What's the wasted space? The parking lot / Dover river trail? Or are there abandoned lots around it?

https://www.reddit.com/r/newhampshire/comments/10w3xgc/dover_builds_tiny_home_neighborhood/

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This isn’t the type of building that really helps take a chunk out of the work-force-housing availability/affordability crisis. These aren’t anywhere near walkable jobs, aren’t own-able, and are a inefficient in terms of utilities.

To really make a dent, these cities and towns need be building vertical, high density, multi-story/multi-family housing.

>To really make a dent, these cities and towns need be building vertical, high density, multi-story/multi-family housing.

Why not cede the southern half of the state to Boston then? Boston has housing like that, many people that can't afford it or don't want it move here. Time for them to uproot again?

Boston is dealing with an even worse affordability/ availability crisis at the moment, so I can’t imagine “handing over” part of a state is good for much other than a thinly veiled meme excuse for “keeping things the way they are”, which is typically bad for business, diversity, education, investment, ecology, etc…

Your opinion is that our cities and towns should be building vertical, high-density housing boxes. Boston has that. Yet you're saying it's even worse there? How can that be? Doesn't it stand to reason that doing the same thing here will produce the same result?

This is that other meme about insanity, doing the same thing repeatedly yet expecting different results each time.

One of the biggest issues in the greater Boston area is the close proximity of single family suburbs to the downtown area…however, the difference between metro Boston and the seacoast is about 3 million people. Their crisis is rooted in centuries of slow development from single, to double, to triple family homes.

Vertical building on the seacoast likely would consist of 3-4 story townhomes or apartment complexes, rather than 15-20 story highrises. Dover and Portsmouth aren’t high rise cities surrounded by well established suburbs, it’s basically suburbs surrounded by undeveloped land. The seacoast runs the risk of establishing spread out suburbs doing stuff like OP posted.

Rather than pigeonholing itself into slow development, the seacoast area could be relatively innovative and prioritize townhomes, triplexes, and apartment buildings, rather than standalone single family homes. This would allow people currently living in the city to stay in the city that they enjoy

>This would allow people currently living in the city to stay in the city that they enjoy

Although many might appreciate a sharp rise in the value of their home due to scarcity.

If you're not building the super large buildings, the tax rate may need to go up to build or expand the schools, fire depts, police, etc.

The community trail is widely used and a nice natural spot. Some development could go there I guess, but it's not "wasted space."

I'm going to be honest, my wife is a big fan of the whole concept of tiny living, and even watches a whole bunch of the reality shows about people searching for tiny houses to move into, and she enjoys seeing how Nifty they look and how people get creative and versatile with the amount of space that they have...

But the honest truth is, I'm not a big fan of this idea that the only way to find affordable housing is for us Working Class People to start looking for smaller and smaller living spaces to squeeze ourselves in our families into. They can try to glamorize it and glorify it however they want, and make all of the reality TV shows about it that they want, but every time I see these people buying houses that are 300 Square ft to 900 square feet in Total Living size, the only thing that I'm reminded of is the depictions of "slave quarters" that I used to see in history textbooks back when I was in school.

This is basically what they're doing to us now. And a lot of us are too blind to actually seem to notice it. They try to make it seem fun, and quirky, and exciting and adventurous to squeeze a family of four or five people into a 300 square foot living space, while all the decent sized, three and four bedroom houses in New Hampshire's current housing market are horribly overpriced compared to basically every other state housing market in the country.

If you look down in pennsylvania, you can find a four or five bedroom house going for 85,000 to $100,000 in the housing market, compared to New Hampshire where a two bedroom or three bedroom home will run you anywhere from $250,000 to $400,000. In New Hampshire today, the only way that you can own your own home is to either buy something that's under a thousand square feet, or to have a median income of over $80,000 to $90,000 a year.

I've lived in this state my entire life, and it utterly sucks that working class citizens are getting priced out of the area; we're either forced to live in cramped, overpriced apartments, or have at least 3 to 4 different incomes to help afford all of the expenses of owning your own home, and neither of those is conducive to what the "American Dream," is supposed to be.

My thoughts exactly. I don't go that close to downtown on it because the encampments tend to be down there, but I use the north-west ends of it all the time.

Yeah, I realize there are a handful of homeless people that make use of the bridge to set up tents under. They've never really bothered me when we occasionally walk or stroll the baby, outside of some eye contact or talking to themselves. Buy I get it, being around people with mental health issues going untreated can be a heavy ask.

>I've lived in this state my entire life, and it utterly sucks that working class citizens are getting priced out of the area; we're either forced to live in cramped, overpriced apartments, or have at least 3 to 4 different incomes to help afford all of the expenses of owning your own home, and neither of those is conducive to what the "American Dream," is supposed to be.

I can see only two other options.. make the state undesirable so people leave or embrace sprawl into towns that are underbuilt.

I've lived in Greenland, Dover, Barrington, Rochester and even Hampton for a short period. The problem is that the "sprawl into underdeveloped towns" is so sought after now, that any new housing developments are over-priced even before being constructed.

That sprawl could be accelerated. Not proposing it as a solution, but the ability for someone to achieve the dream of home ownership in NH is only going to become more challenging over time so long as the population increases and the desirability of NH living doesn't decrease. Even sprawling out only works for so long.

I see the kindness in it but $1200 a month for 364 Sq ft is hella expensive no matter who you are. That's the cost of my mortgage and escrow on a 1300 Sq ft house.

Or option three, of building more apartments

That was covered..

"we're either forced to live in cramped, overpriced apartments, or have at least 3 to 4 different incomes to help afford all of the expenses of owning your own home"

I haven't yet seen a floorplan for new apartments that I'd call underpriced or spacious. Although I guess you could argue that cramped is kind of a defining attribute of an apartment.

Just curious, what do you consider cramped for a single person? Not looking at families here. I've gone through a range of apartments (from 400 to 1200sqft). The 400 was a bit small but my current 700 is fine

Call your state reps and have them vote for HB 44

That's guaranteed to cause unintended consequences.

For anyone that's curious:

https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_Status/billinfo.aspx?id=84&inflect=2

Or take the obvious and sensible option of simply allowing our already built spaces to increase in density. NH is full of urban areas that could easily add huge amounts of new housing by simply removing the regulations that prevent it and de-prioritizing car infrastructure.

The sprawl is being driven by the fact that it's the only viable option to add housing in most of the state. Developers fell an acre of trees to drop in a shitty looking car dependent house because just building an extra floor and some stairs anywhere is illegal.

Not the trails. The parking lot, surrounding parking lots, empty lots, and low density buildings like the Family Dollar.

Dover has a rail and bus connected riverfront downtown close to all kinds of desirable destinations that few people can actually live in because half the space is dedicated to storing cars. It could easily be the premier walkable city in the state.

Building more housing isn't going to make housing more expensive. Boston is expensive because lots of people want to live there relative to the supply of housing that allows them to do that.

Increasing density is not going to increase the tax rate. Denser housing is more efficient and results in lower taxes per person.

Big difference. They’ll collect on this forever, and no one owns these except for them.

Why do urban areas want to increase density? What are the more distant areas doing to compensate the urban areas for their sacrifice? Dense living isn't better living. Maybe for some folks, but not for many. That's not a house and a yard and a family and all that. You may look down upon "car dependent" living, but it led to people being able to have that house and yard. It's not a coincidence that people fled the cities once cars became readily available. People didn't want to live that way.

There's a selling point. Building housing won't make it more expensive here because no one wants to live here. Except.. they do, that's why there's a shortage.

Next.

In the long run, perhaps. In the short term, any burden the pose on the community has to be absorbed by the community. The new arrivals wouldn't have even started paying property tax yet. And even when they do, any costs associated with them will take years to collect via property tax.

What if the government could do something other than fight wars and make rich people richer?

these shitholes won't last 5 years.

hail corporate! (found the shill, again)

In Dover?

Unfortunately except for a few people with ideal commutes, the train isn't al lthat great. I've taken it a few times, but it still costs more than driving if you aren't solo, and the first trip of the day is after 10am.

“Make the state undesirable so people leave”. This is exactly what WILL happen in due time and it’ll be done by the very people who left their own crappy states for better quality of life. NH is changing rapidly and not for the better. IMO

Section 8 in 5 years.

Ironically, New Hampshire is only desirable because it isn't population dense.

I mean there is another really good option other than moving to BFE Nebraska. Shit can capitalism and everyone other than the 1% will have tremendously better lives.