Housing Headlines

CHELSEA --- Fairfield Residential has reportedly purchased parcels in Chelsea for $45.7 million and is planning a two-phased residential development. The sites are located on either side of Vale St. near the high school. A nationwide developer, Fairfield owns Baker Chocolate Factory in Dorchester and Carson Tower Apartments in So. Boston.

HAVERHILL --- A recent agreement to allow a developer to pay $57,000 into a fund rather than sell two homes at below-market rates is being hailed as the beginning of a push to get more developers to contribute into a fund the city will use to create more affordable housing.

WORCESTER --- Scudder Bay Capital, a company that bought and rehabbed 250 one- to four-bedroom properties in Massachusetts and Rhode Island during the foreclosure crisis, is hoping to sell all of its portfolio "in one fell swoop," according to Scudder CEO Bryan S. Ganz. According to the Worcester Telegram, Scudder owns 36 properties in Worcester and also has properties in Webster, Fitchburg, Gardner, Attleboro, Taunton, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lynn and Springfield.

BOSTON --- The City of Boston will announce today a series of pilot programs designed to increase rental and homeownership opportunities in the city. The initiatives are being generated by the city's Housing Innovation Lab, a short-term project funded by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The North of Boston Media Group, which publishes the Salem News, the Lawrence Eagle Tribune and several other publications, has run an editorial calling on local leaders to address the shortage of affordable housing in their communities before "a new generation of young professionals and new families" are priced out of the region.

NEWTON --- The city is not responding to a settlement offer from a developer who is suing Newton and its Zoning Board of Appeals over the right to build a 334-unit workforce/affordable housing project in the Wells Avenue office park, the developer said.