The new leader of the Concord organization that aims to increase affordable housing opportunities is not immune to the challenges of the current housing market.
It took months for Julie Palmeri, who started as the executive director of Concord Housing and Redevelopment at the end of January, to find her own place to call home within Concord city limits.
Palmeri grew up in Concord before moving away to work in residential property management in Hawaii and Maryland. She is excited to be back in New Hampshire, and is ready to get to work creating more housing opportunities in the Concord area. Like many Granite Staters who moved away and then returned, she’s eager to take part in the state’s outdoor offerings, including swimming, hiking and skiing, and to reunite with old friends.
“The friends that I have here – I’ve never made friends like that anywhere else I’ve lived,” she said.
Palmeri began looking for a rental in October 2021, when she began talks for the job that John Hoyt held for two decades. Hoyt, who is retiring, has stayed on to smooth Palmeri’s transition. After being placed on months-long waitlists in Concord, Manchester and Goffstown, Palmeri found herself checking rental websites every day to no avail.
Palmeri changed tactics and bought a three-bedroom South End house for $305,000, beating out higher offers when she was able to pay in cash. When an inspection revealed that the home would need a new roof, a hot water expansion and other fixes adding up to a few thousand dollars, she went ahead with the purchase and decided to fix the issues herself.
“The walls were a total disaster; there was wallpaper peeling off the walls,” she said. “It’s a fixer-upper for sure.”
Even with all the work, she said she loves the “good bones” of the 19th-century house and its close proximity to downtown Concord. She can take Carol, her short-legged Lab-Dachshund mix, on walks downtown to Brothers Cortado coffee shop or to Concord Housing’s Green Street office, where Palmeri has encouraged other employees to bring in dogs.
Since she moved in, she has been hard at work refinishing floors, painting and attempting to order furniture, a harder task with supply chain disruptions. Her kitchen cabinets bear test swatches of different blue-gray shades under consideration and her sunny front room is awaiting the arrival of an orange couch where Carol can nap.
Her efforts to secure a place to live illustrate the current challenges facing Concord homebuyers and renters amid low inventory and fierce competition.
Palmeri said one of Concord’s most pressing housing needs is workforce housing, for residents who make too much to qualify for low-income housing but too little to rent apartments going for $2,000 a month.
“We need to try to figure out a way to make more apartment units, build more, and make them accessible to that sort of mid-range, average American worker who doesn’t have anywhere to live right now,” she said.
Working people who fit into that category have been left looking for housing that just doesn’t exist in Concord, which has a vacancy rate of less than 1%.
One of Palmeri’s new ideas for Concord Housing and Redevelopment is giving employees time off to do community service days, giving back to Concord by volunteering with organizations like the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness.
Concord Housing is focused now on buying distressed properties near downtown, especially smaller multi-family buildings of four or five units, and bringing them up to code.
Sometimes, the City of Concord asks the organization to buy up problematic properties, like buildings with a history of drug problems. In return, Concord Housing receives letters from grateful neighbors.
“So that’s going to be our goal, just to constantly improve the neighborhoods,” Palmeri said. That process been made more difficult lately with soaring prices, and a competitive market where houses are sold in a matter of days.
“It’s just a tough time for us right now,” she said. “Everything we’ve looked at is sold before we’ve got a chance to look at it.”