Housing Headlines

WORCESTER --- Reporter Matthew Brown does the math on how the slumping real estate market has impacted the value and investment potential of hundreds of three-decker homers in Worcester.

WAREHAM --- The town's zoning board is considering the approval of a 40B proposal by local development company Gatehouse Group, which would create 144 one- to three-bedroom rental units on 15 acres overlooking Union Pond at 2880 Cranberry Highway.

SPRINGFIELD --- Lenders foreclosed on 1,027 properties in Hampden County during the last fiscal year, almost double the number from the previous year, the county's registrar of deeds reported at July 23 news conference. Foreclosures in Hampden County rose by 94 percent from the 529 recorded in the previous fiscal year. Of the 1,027 foreclosures completed in Hampden County, 691 of them were in Springfield. Chicopee had 65 foreclosures, up 117 percent from last year. Holyoke had 48, up 50 percent from 2007.

PITTSFIELD --- A neighborhood community group is holding a public meeting to voice concerns about the city's consideration of adopting a smart growth overlay district and a tax-break incentives that would promote downtown development. The city already has granted a special permit to a developer who proposes to build 43 new affordable housing units downtown.

LANCASTER --- Selectmen have approved the town's purchase a home from the state Department of Housing and Urban Development for $1. The purchase is part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Good Neighbor Program, which promotes the development of affordable housing by facilitating the sale of aged HUD inventory to local governments. The town hopes to turn the home into affordable housing by donating it to a nonprofit organization.

LOWELL --- The 115 artists on the list for 68 proposed affordable live/work lofts will have to wait a bit longer as the city's zoning board of appeals has raised a variety of concerns about the plan to turn five manufacturing buildings into housing.