Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- In addition to education, legal, and legislative remedies to crackdown on unsafe lending practices, MAHA's Tom Callahan discusses the need to update the Community Reinvestment Act, to increase the lending responsibility of mortgage companies.

BOSTON --- The Executive Office for Administration and Finance has announced plans for greater support of affordable housing and job creation through the use of tax-exempt private activity bonds.

NEEDHAM --- With a boost from town-approved CPA funds, Needham prepares to move forward with a 40B effort that will add 40 units of affordable housing, including 20 homeownership and 12 low-income rental units.

SHARON --- The second appraisal of a parcel of land planned for a 40B effort has cut its value in half, leading the developer to reassess the size of the effort.

ASHLAND --- A 40B proposal that would add 32 three- and four-bedroom units on 13 acres of land awaits approval from the state. This would be the third 40B proposal recently submitted in the town, which currently has about four percent affordable housing.

WORCESTER --- Developers have begun an effort in Worcester's downtown arts district in hopes of attracting young middle-income workers to the city. The effort will rehab an entire city block into an 'urban village' comprised of 185 mixed-income condo and apartment units with commercial space on the ground floor.