Housing Headlines

FITCHBURG --- The city's redevelopment authority has extended the deadline for proposals to develop a downtown site into retail and residential, even as nearby property owners are questioning the plan, noting that a pharmacy company is also interested in the site.

EASTHAMPTON --- A legal review and a third public hearing are the next steps in this community's bid to create an ordinance that would encourage developers to build more affordable housing by allowing them to build more units per acre than is currently allowed.

BOSTON --- The city has selected a developer to fix four foreclosed homes in a hard-hit Dorchester neighborhood and is looking to do more en masse foreclosure rehab work in other Boston neighborhoods.

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.