Housing Headlines

AMHERST --- With an increase of students living off campus and a drop in families living in town, the Amherst Affordable Housing Trust is urging the Town Council to support a policy calling for the creation of 250 housing units over the next five to 10 years. In making the case trust chair John Hornik said UMass students living off campus has increased by 4,000 since 2000 and the number of children in the Amherst schools have dropped by 1,000 over a similar period.

FALMOUTH --- The company charged with marketing and selling two affordable condominiums in an eight-unit cluster of condominiums is surprised that, as of Sept. 19, no one had applied. While market rate condos in the complex will sell for overf $700,000 each, the affordable condos — three bedrooms, two bathrooms — are priced at $232,584 and carry a monthly condo fee of $157. Income limits are capped at 80 percent of the area’s median income, which is $51,250 for single-member households, $58,600 for two-member households, $65,900 for three-member households, and $73,200 for four-member households. The applicant may have no more than $75,000 in assets.

MARBLEHEAD --- Local developer Ted Moore's plans to build 48 condominiums - 12 of them affordable - moved closer to approval recently as the Zoning Board of Appeals resolved several issues and seems poised to OK a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit at its next meeting. Marblehead currently has 333 units of subsidized housing, or about 3.9 percent of all housing in town.

STOUGHTON --- The redevelopment of a downtown property into 14 apartments has hit a snag with the recent discovery that the planning board's approval of parking for the new building's first floor does not conform with zoning for the special downtown overlay district.

DORCHESTER --- Local developer would like to buy and redevelop the former Gallagher Insurance Agency site in Fields Corner into a four-story mixed-use property with 23 studio apartments, but only if the neighborhood OKs his plan. During a community meeting, residents debated whether rental or condominiums would be better. As proposed, the development would not offer parking, per the city’s Compact Living Pilot program guidelines, which the property qualifies for given its proximity to a Red Line stop.

MILLBURY --- A Washington D.C. firm whose founder has previous ties with developers Mill Creek Residential and Avalon Bay has purchased the +100-unit Cordis Mills apartments in Millbury for $17.5 million.