How is Troy Growing?

Recently Approved Housing Subdivisions leave us asking one big question, "Who is going to live in these new shiny houses?"

The Planning Commission Has Been Busy

Since the first of the year, the City’s Planning Commission has approved a number of subdivisions for new residential housing in the community. Preliminary Plan approvals have been given to Liberty Meadows that will add 86 new building lots to the city’s inventory and for The Reserves at Cliff Oaks, which will add another 136 single-family lots.

Final Plan approvals have been given to the 10th section of Fox Harbor (with 27 lots), and another section of the Halifax subdivision (with 20 lots). The first section of Addison Landing was recently approved for 51 building lots, just north of the Westbrook Subdivision.

All told, these three subdivisions with Final Plat approvals will likely add 98 homes to Troy’s inventory within the next couple of years and the additions of the Liberty Meadows and The Reserves and Cliff Oaks will add more than 220 lots to the city’s inventory that will be more than likely be built upon over the next few years. And these numbers don’t even include the newly zoned areas for housing, such as the land at West Market Street and Nashville Road that was zoned last year for a Planned Residential Development.

Are We Growing Too Fast?

Recently, American Structurepoint, the city’s consulting firm on the new Comprehensive Plan, recently released a draft existing condition’s report that devoted an entire chapter to housing. This publication took a deep look at this chapter in this edition of our publication:

One of the most interesting aspects of the city’s housing is that the growth in housing, isn’t necessarily growing the same way as our population. You might be thinking, what does that really mean.

Well, many residents often talk about how “Troy is growing too fast” or “Our town is growing too quickly”. Looking at some statistics, some would argue the opposite. In fact, from 2020 to 2023, the city only grew by 359 residents, a total population growth rate of 1.3%; not exactly rapid growth.

But one of the most interesting aspects of the Existing Conditions Report showed that the number of housing units is growing quickly. Between 2020 and 2023, the report showed that while the city only added 359 residents, it added 473 housing units. The number of housing units grew by nearly 4%. In other words, the number of housing units is growing at three times the rate of the city’s population over the last three years.

And when these new housing units are built, they tend to take up space. In the same Existing Conditions Report, American Structurepoint found that nearly 39% of all the land in the city is being used for residential development and a whopping 35% is used specifically for single-family detached homes.

When our residents are making statements like, “This city is growing too fast”, they aren’t necessarily saying there are more people in town; they are saying that they are seeing more housing units being built.

Who Will Live In These New Homes?

News of the First Phase of Addison Landing recently was announced in the Dayton Business Journal, and a couple of staffers from the City’s Development Department were quoted in the publication:

“Troy currently has several subdivisions that offer $500,000 and up homes as well. So, this is kind of a market below that. That’s what we are looking forward too,” (City Development Director Tim) Davis said.

Dayton-based Oberer Thompson will oversee construction on the housing development. Groundbreaking will begin in coming weeks. Addison Landing will developed in four phases. Davis implied this may take up to eight years to be built.

“It typically takes a year and a half, to two years per phase. Of course, that depends on the market and the availability of lots as they come,” Davis said.

The new subdivision will be situated just north of an already established neighborhood called Westbrook.

Austin Eidemiller, the planning and zoning manager for Troy, expressed excitement for the new development.

“We think it’s a great thing for the community," Eidemiller said. "I think it fills an area that we’re trying to provide, housing types and style for all of our citizens from different ranges. So, I think this fits in well with what we’re trying to do and I think it’ll be a good product in the end.”

The excitement that the city staffers had on the new offerings of $350,000 homes is pretty evident, especially considering that the city staffers were saying that there is an adequate supply of $500,000 homes in the community. But making the claim that a new residential subdivision is providing housing for all the city’s residents needs a bit more scrutiny.

We can begin putting that claim to the test by asking the big question: Who exactly are these new homes designed for?

Well, American Structurepoint endeavored to answer this question and when compared with data from the Census Bureau, some conclusions can be made.

Most of the employed people in our town are in the manufacturing sector; over 3,800 Trojans are in this sector, which is roughly 29% of all workers in the city. According to American Structurepoint, individuals in the manufacturing sector have an average annual wage of $60,000 and can expect to afford a home of roughly $200,000. In other words, these new homes aren’t necessarily meant for most workers in our community.

Troy does have a fair number of employees in the Educational Services, Health Care and Social Service sectors - roughly 2,600 people work in this sector in our town. The average wage of those in Educational Services is roughly $84,000 a year and these wages can support a home at $289,000; still not at that $350,000 point. Health Care workers can expect an annual wage of $93,000 and those wages can afford a home at $324,000. Again, getting close but not quite there.

According to the U. S. Census Bureau, 68% of all households in our town earn less than $75,000 a year, which means they can afford a home less than roughly $250,000 a year.

So what industries can afford a home in excess of $350,000? Well, according to American Structurepoint, it’s the bottom five industries on this chart:

Let’s dive a bit deeper into the data. Looking only at the Public Administration sector, according to American Structurepoint, there are 841 Public Administration jobs in our community. However, according to the Census Bureau, only 423 people from our town are employed in Public Administration.

In other words, even if every Public Administrator that lived in Troy actually worked in Troy, there are still 418 Public Administration jobs that exist in our town — these jobs are being filled by people that don’t live here in Troy.

And considering an average public administration wage can support a $700,000 home, these homes that are being built aren’t for people who currently live here and work here.

In the final analysis, these new homes aren’t being built for the hard-working folks of our community. Rather, they are being built to attract new residents to the community.

What do you think? Are these healthy trends for our community? What do you think housing looks like in our community ten or twenty years from now? Feel free to leave your ideas in the comment thread!

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