“We struggle with keeping housing affordable,” Tolbert acknowledges.“Prices are quite high and they continue to increase. Keeping housing affordable for the residents who have lived here now and have lived here for some time or folks that want to return to the island that grew up here is a constant challenge.” This pattern is repeated in other resort communities where vacation home purchases surged 16.4% in 2020, driving prices beyond local wage earners’ reach. Bott frames the dual crisis succinctly: “We don’t have room for expansion. We have a stock issue inventory problem as well because affordable housing is what we’re struggling with right now.There’s basically no space for it, even if we wanted to encourage it or go into joint partnership.” Unlike mainland communities that can sprawl outward, Chincoteague’s geographic constraints intensify every market pressure. The influx of affluent buyers from metropolitan areas compounds the challenge. “When we have 25 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 08 CHINCOTEAGUE, VA
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