Even doctors earning up to $350K/year are struggling to find homes in this wealthy part of New York — and it's causing trouble for the local hospitals

“This is the most challenging place to recruit,” Connor told Bloomberg. “The single most difficult impediment to get around right now is the housing prices.”

Why the affordability crisis stretches past the Big Apple

Greenport is part of the North Folk peninsula, in the northeast part of Suffolk County — and was long considered a more casual alternative to The Hamptons, New York’s string of seaside communities that serve as a summer destination for the wealthy and elite.

“Part of the squeeze with the North Fork is the spillover effect from the Hamptons because prices have risen so rapidly that the North Fork became this cheaper alternative — until it wasn’t,” said Jonathan Miller, president of real estate appraisal and consulting company Miller Samuel.

Median prices in North Folk have jumped 50% in four years to nearly $1 million, according to Miller Samuel and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. In the meanwhile, listings have plunged 60% to 137 properties for a population of around 50,000.

“It’s a huge concern. It’s not just a New York City issue anymore,” said Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference, which advocates for affordable housing. “Affordability is an issue across the state.”

State leaders are negotiating housing deal

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said state leaders have reached a landmark deal on the framework of a new legislative plan to tackle the housing crisis.

The plan includes major tax breaks for developers to create affordable housing, higher wages for construction workers and protections for tenants, and would allow landlords of rent-stabilized apartments to raise rents in order to cover some renovations.

It would also lift some size limits on large apartment buildings and provide incentives to developers to convert vacant office buildings to housing.