Housing Headlines

LEOMINSTER --- Twin Cities CDC recently began accepting applications for 40 affordable apartments in the newly renovated Whitney & Co. factory building. The rehabilitated building, now called Water Mill Apartments, will rent one- and two-bedroom apartments once construction is complete in either August or September.

GRANBY --- Twenty years after the town purchased the land and four site plans later, the Town of Granby and its housing authority are finally celebrating the completion of 12 affordable rental homes for families. The six duplexes include six two-bedroom and six three-bedroom apartments affordable to familes below 60 percent of area median income. The town - population 6,500 and located north of Springfield - held an open house was held in March and a public event is scheduled for the spring, after the landscaping is done.

HARVARD --- The four-unit affordable housing complex on Fairbank Street known as the "Inn" has been sold at foreclosure by North Middlesex Savings Bank to Harvard resident Rick Curtin, who has a real estate business based in Waltham. Curtin, who bought the property from the Harvard Trust Non Profit Properties for $226,000, said he does not yet have definitive plans for the property. All current residents have moved or will move out of the property. The non-profit still owns the Elms, a five-unit affordable housing property in town.

DORCHESTER --- Longtime city real estate watcher and local cable TV news reporter Chris Lovett has penned another thorough story on what's happening in the Dorchester real estate market. Lovett reports that rents are rising and properties are selling, some for more than the asking price.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Town Meeting voters overwhelmingly approved the creation of an affordable housing trust fund, which will give the town greater flexibility in using local funds to address the need for affordable housing, a shortage exacerbated when flood waters caused by Tropical Storm Irene damaged most of the homes at The Spruces mobile home park.

WORCESTER --- Local real estate watchers say the recent surge in sales of homes, condos and multifamilies for less than $100,000 is another sign that the region's real estate market is in recovery.