Jenna Goudreau of Forbes.com has an interesting look at 2010 projections by Moody’s Economy.com: Top 10 States People Are Fleeing. The data suggests a good news/bad news scenario with the implication that building more apartment buildings in New Rochelle may be unwise:
At No.1 on our list, New York is expected to wave goodbye to 49,000 more people than it gains this year. The state has seen a steady loss of residents over the past five years, losing an average of 100,000 people per year. Karp explains that, because New York is a large state, it may report greater movement than others, but notes that population size is not the only reason residents are fleeing.
In order to move, you need to be able to sell your home,” says Karp. “The housing market [in New York] has not gone through the meltdown that other states have gone through.”
While New York homeowners may have a slightly easier time selling their homes and moving to greener pastures, a competing trend is the number of unemployed renters who can no longer afford the high cost of living in and around New York City. Karp says the expensive lifestyle and high taxes may force the long-term unemployed to move on to more affordable regions.
Step 1 before Step 2
New Rochelle needs local business before it can even think about more residences. A town full of people and no city income is not pretty and the taxes show.
New Rochelle must face reality on development
This article demonstrates quite clearly that the projected plans to place apartments near the New Rochelle train station are misguided. At present New York City has a higher unemployment rate than Westchester. Our Commissioner of Development stated at the last Council meeting that population growth was “inevitable” in New Rochelle. Obviously this is not a valid conclusion for New Rochelle or New York State. The citizens of New Rochelle should not be held hostage to simplistic conclusions that cannot be verified.