Halfmoon, Colonie lead area in home construction

PHOTOGRAPHER: Marc Schultz

Construction workers from D&D Masonry build forms for the foundation of a home located at 30 Howland Park Dr. in the new Howland Park Traditional & Carriage Homes off Johnson Road in Halfmoon. This is the first home being built in Howland Park.

Sluggish. Fizzling. Subdued. Pick an unenthusiastic adjective, and real estate agents have likely used it to describe the U.S. housing market in the last year.

There are bright spots, of course. In the Capital Region, you’ll find them in the suburban towns of Halfmoon and Colonie, where a boom in new residential construction continued in 2014, thanks in large part to the availability of developable land and the proximity of large employers.

These two towns — one in southern Saratoga County, the other in northern Albany County — topped Capital Region municipalities for the most new residential construction last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from the first 11 months of the year. The town of Halfmoon issued 143 building permits in 2014 for a total 183 units estimated to cost nearly $36.6 million. The town of Colonie issued 150 building permits for a total 266 units estimated to cost more than $49.6 million.

“Builders have told me this anecdotally, but much of the residential development that’s happening here is a result of the people coming in from out of the area to work in Malta,” said Halfmoon Planning Director Richard Harris. “It’s the growth in Malta that’s doing it.”

New home construction increased 16 percent across the entire Capital Region from 2013 to 2014, said Greater Capital Association of Realtors CEO Laura Burns. Still, the overall housing market was indeed sluggish in 2014, she said. Total residential sales increased a modest 8 percent over 2013. But new construction accounted for most of it, she said.

“Inventory levels were down, which means there were less houses to buy and that’s when you’ll see these spurts in new construction,” she said.

With semiconductor giant GlobalFoundries having created 3,000 permanent jobs here in the last few years and planning additional hiring, new residential construction is expected to continue in the communities surrounding Malta as these employees look for homes nearby. Also a likely contributor to the boom, Harris said, is the county’s low property taxes and proximity to the Northway.

For the last decade or two, the majority of Halfmoon’s residential development has cropped up in the northern half of town, where old family farms have come on the market and sewer and water infrastructure is plentiful or planned.

“That’s where I see pockets filling in,” Harris said. “But they have their own problems, that’s why they weren’t developed until now. They’ve got constraints: wetlands to avoid or slopes or lack of water and sewer.”

Most of the building permits issued in Halfmoon last year were for single-family homes. Projects that got underway included a second phase for Arlington Heights, a 26-lot subdivision; Swatling Falls, a 95-unit development; Sheldon Hills, a mix of 83 single- and multifamily units; and Anna’s Place, a 27-lot subdivision of single-family homes.

And just two weeks into the New Year, Harris confirmed construction is set to begin on several others: Howland Park (96 units), Cardin Acres (36 units), Victor’s Farm (13 units) and Sandy Rock (19 units).

In Colonie, where planners issued the most building permits in all of the Capital Region last year, town officials have said their residential construction boom is likely the result of easy access to municipal water and sewer lines, low taxes, high-ranking schools and proximity to shopping centers.

Rocky Ferraro, executive director of the Capital District Regional Planning Commission, thinks the town’s position at the geographic center of the Capital Region could be contributing to its residential success.

“Access is a critical factor,” he said. “It’s in the center of the Capital District, meaning it’s likely close to wherever someone works, which affects where they live.”

It’s also no surprise, he said, that both Halfmoon and Colonie have low tax rates and fairly easy regulatory processes for developers looking to build.

Of the two Capital Region cities to report monthly data to the U.S. Census Bureau last year, Saratoga Springs was a strong contender with the suburbs for new residential construction. Because there’s less room to build in cities, new residential construction is largely confined to the suburbs and any new housing that does crop up in downtown cores typically involves adaptive reuse of existing buildings.

Saratoga Springs trailed only Colonie, Halfmoon and Guilderland for the most building permits issued last year, though. The 71 building permits included 192 units estimated to cost nearly $36.9 million. In number of units and cost, Saratoga trailed only Colonie.

“If you look at those coming from abroad to work in Malta, you’re looking at people who are likely interested in living in an urban environment without long commutes,” Ferraro said. “Saratoga Springs is one area where that opportunity exists.”

Downtown dwellers also tend to be those on opposite ends of the age spectrum: millennials and baby boomers. Millennials want to live in walkable communities with nightlife and dining right down the street. Baby boomers, whose kids have grown up and moved out and who are starting to reach retirement age, are looking to downsize both their homes and cars, and have chosen urban lifestyles in their place.

“You’ll have families who want to move into suburban communities and you’ll have an older population that does, too,” he said. “But we’re also seeing them pursue smaller footprints so they don’t have to maintain big homes anymore or worry about driving everywhere. Fortunately, the Capital Region is large enough to accommodate a range of lifestyle choices.”