Housing Headlines

DORCHESTER --- The rising real estate market is making Dorchester less affordable, with for-sale home prices up 32 percent since 2010 and the rent for a two-bedroom now up to $2,200, according to a report in the Dorchester Reporter. Real estate watchers are split on whether Dorchester is becoming the next Southie - typified by higher density apartment buildings, rising rents and more young professionals.

BOSTON --- While real estate agents marketing luxury apartments are now offering a month or two of free rent and other concessions, that's not the case for the so-called "broad middle" of the rental market, where the market is tight for two-bedroom renting for $2,500 or less, according to a story written by the Boston Globe's Tim Logan.

The Boston Globe's Tim Logan reports that average rents have climbed almost 10 percent in the past year in a belt of towns running from Plymouth to Franklin. This is almost twice as much as rents have risen in pricier markets such as central Boston and Brookline. Developers say rising rents in the suburbs is due to a lack of supply.

WEST NEWBURY --- With the Cottages at River Hill, West Newbury is the latest in a small sample of developments around the state that are offering smaller homes and clustered neighborhoods targeted at empty nesters and single professionals.

WORCESTER --- Teary eyed and once having to leave the room, Auburn Housing Authority board chairman Wayne Page said the housing authority did not know that the police had been called 60 times to the housing authority home where a 2-year-old foster child died on Aug. 15. Page said from now on, the housing authority will work to have a better handle on how many children live in their homes and to make sure they are safe.

LAWRENCE --- A housing study commissioned by Mayor Daniel Rivera and co-funded by MHP predicts that in the next two decades, the city will grow by 410 households per year while adding only 310 units annually. The $46,000 study, done by Rivera so he could get a handle on the city's housing situation, said the shortfall will put additional pressure on the city,, which is plagued by a low vacancy rate (3.9 percent), rising rents and a housing stock in which half of the 27,000 units were built before World War II.