Housing Headlines

PROVINCETOWN --- Community Housing Resources Inc. is making progress in increasing the supply of affordable housing at the tip of the Cape. The Provincetown-based nonprofit was recently awarded $1.5 million from the state for its 23-unit Stable Path proposal near Race Point and it is weeks away from completing a 15-unit rental project on Shank Painter Rd. According to CHR President Ted Malone, there were 104 applications for the 15 units. There are 12 efficiency units and three one-bedroom units, with rents ranging from $580 to $750 a month.

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.

GREENFIELD --- The nonprofit affiliate of the Greenfield Housing Authority has successfully completed the renovation of the downtown Winslow Building into 30 units of affordable rental housing.

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.