Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton and several members of the Board of Aldermen are concerned the town is not doing enough to support low-income housing.

“We have a lot of people who are hurting at a lot lower income levels than we’re currently reaching,” Chilton said at Tuesday night’s board meeting.

“Our current system doesn’t ever encourage anybody to create affordable rental housing for people who live on social security/disability income,” he said.

Chilton also said he was concerned about housing for people who live on minimum wage or 20 percent of the median income.

The comments came during a discussion of the affordable housing provisions in the land use ordinance.  In that ordinance, the town has a goal that at least 15 percent of units in new residential developments should be affordable.

The Triangle has received yet more affirmation that is better positioned than most regions to emerge quickly from this recession.

Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, a California research firm, has ranked the Raleigh-Cary market first and the Durham-Chapel Hill market sixth on its list of the healthiest markets among the top 100 U.S. housing markets.
 
The rankings are calculated based on a market's home prices, employment conditions and income growth potential. This is the second Market Health report released by Hanley Wood. The first was published last year.

Jonathan Smoke, senior vice president of products and innovation at Hanley Wood Market, had this to say about Raleigh's top ranking:

"Based on end 2010 economic forecasts, we think Raleigh will be the healthiest of the largest 100 markets in the country.  Raleigh comes out on top because of stronger employment conditions, moderate household income growth, and continued strong household formation.  The market still is expected to see minor home price declines (approximately 3 percent decline expected for 2010 over 2009), which is one factor that keeps the market from being even stronger."

It says a lot about the U.S. housing market that an expected 3 percent decline gets you ranked number one. Hanley Wood's report, which will be out later this month, predicts an even smaller price decline of 2.2 percent for the Durham-Chapel Hill market.

While I was working on a story on home prices in eastern Wake, I heard something that made me quite happy.

While sales are now much slower than they used to, many of the real estate professionals I talked with were quite optimistic about this part of Wake County. They said that many people who used to look for homes only in other areas of the Triangle are now coming to Knightdale, Wendell and Zebulon to shop for houses. And they believe that once things get better again, eastern Wake will be in a good position.

Granted, I have heard people — mainly those either living or developing in eastern Wake — talk about "one of the last areas of Wake County where land is still affordable" for years. But maybe now they, as well as the real estate agents, have a point.

Like developer Greg Ferguson of Mercury Development writes in his blog, new highways and schools, centralized water and sewer service and more than 1,000 acres of new open space and parks, among other things, are likely to help foster growth in the area.

Ferguson, whose company is developing eastern Wake's largest-ever subdivision, Wendell Falls, has to believe in the area where he is planning to put 4,000 homes. But I think he has a point. Eastern Wake has changed for the better during the past few years, and people who might not have been interested in the area just a few years ago might now be willing to come and check it out.

The next task is to get the word out about eastern Wake and all that it offers. I'm willing to do my part with anyone who just wants to listen.