NORFOLK, Va. — On Tuesday, Old Dominion University released 2024's "State of the Region" report.
At the event held in downtown Norfolk, News 3 spoke to experts who explained where our area has succeeded and fallen short.
Here's some of the good news according to ODU Vinod Agarwal, the economy in Hampton Roads is doing pretty well and has been for the last few years.
Watch: Hampton Roads sees stagnated population growth: ODU report
Agarwal added that wages have gone up and more jobs have been created.
However, Hampton Roads and the rest of the country are still dealing with inflation, which Agarwal believes is starting to come down.
Professor Agarwal also added that home ownership in Hampton Roads could be improved if a change were made.
"When mortgages go up guess what happens to housing payment? They rise. Rent has been going up those are two issues that are a concern and what we need to do is to increase the housing supply," said Agarwal.
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Professor Bob McNab believes this is easier said than done.
"If you think about not in my backyard, it's a problem of homeowners who feel the burden of new development versus everybody who benefits from new development so you get a small fraction of the benefits and you bare a large portion of the cost and that's an imbalance," says McNab.
McNab thinks a coalition should be created to potentially solve this problem.
"We need to say 'look we want to build more housing in Hampton Roads we know it's going to involve more multi-family housing, less setbacks, and less parking,'" said McNab. "All these things that we could change at the local level it takes consensus and it takes action, we either grow together or we sink together."
As for those who are renting, McNab adds that changed housing policies will help renters as well.
Watch: 2023 report details economy, veteran affairs, transportation & death in Hampton Roads
"We've seen it carried out in Raleigh we've seen it carried out in Minneapolis we've seen it carried out in Austin," said McNab. "When they changed housing policies and codes to favor building guess what happened? More building and in fact in some cases negative price growth in other words rent went down,"
As we head into the next year, McNab says the region has a choice or two to make.
"Either accept the status quo which will lead to higher prices next year more cost-burden households and less housing on the market or you say we have to make a change," said McNab.
