Genevieve - these are a few thoughts from one non-profit developer that has
done both new construction and rehab (and does home repair and improvement) in
the neighborhood.
First, the Federal government supplied cities and states with a ton of money to
deal with the foreclosure problem through the Neighborhood Stabilization
Program (aka NSP, not the power company ). The NSP money mostly says that if
you buy the land it has to be used for housing, or some kind of housing-related
use.
Second, a lot of vacant lots is, I'm given to understand, seen an indicator of
a 'blighted' neighborhood. Now, I fully agree that boarded up houses with blue
and red posters on them does the same thing! But getting stuff from 'nothing'
to 'something' is seen as a positive.
Third, from what I understand from our builders, new construction is way more
constant than rehabilitation. Sometimes rehabs can be easy; sometimes you can
pop open a wall or open a suspended ceiling or strip a floor and find a can of
worms or twenty. (Sorry, that's a kind of icky analogy.) A few years ago
Habitat did a rehab across from a new build; the new build started after and
finished before the rehab.
Fourth, we also have a home repair/home improvement program called A Brush With
Kindness that does help keep existing homes livable and inhabited. Folks need
to be under 50% of Area Median Income (that's $42,000 a year for a family of
four) and homeowners to qualify.
All that being said, if I lived here instead of just worked here, I'd be pretty
tired of construction as well, although a single family house construction is a
wee bit less dramatic than what I can see out of my window here at Western and
University. But if the light rail serves to increase investment, which they say
it will, I think we'll be seeing a lot of construction for a while.