Housing Headlines

MARTHA'S VINEYARD --- Islanders say the age-old problem of finding summer and year-round affordable housing seems worse than ever this summer, what with an improving economy, a nearly sold-out rental vacation market and 3,500 people who have joined a Facebook page called "MV Housing Rentals."

NANTUCKET --- More than 40 years after 9.2 acres was set aside for affordable housing, the Housing Assistance Corp. of Cape Cod and Habitat for Humanity are preparing to begin construction on 40 affordable homes that will be sold to income-qualified homebuyers making between 80 ($58,750) and 150 percent ($110,250) of the area's median income.

SAUGUS --- Saugus has entered into a four-town regional housing service agreement with Reading, North Reading and Wilmington. The four towns will fund a regional housing planner position that will focus on helping the four towns develop and maintain affordable housing.

FALL RIVER --- A few days after the city floated the idea of using state tax credits to build market rate housing in a tax-delinquent abandoned mill in the South End, residents reacted negatively, saying the last thing the neighborhood needs is housing and fearing that the market-rate units would never lease up and end up becoming subsidized low-income housing.

BOSTON --- In a decision that a developer's representative called "unbelievable," the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council (JPNC) Zoning Committee on July 16 voted 5-4 against a plan to demolish a two-family home at 71 South St. and replace it with a four-unit building. Developer Peter Fenn worked with neighbors for two years on a compromise that cut his plan from five to four units but three residents who were not part of the compromise discussions rejected it. Fenn needed an affirmative vote because the property is zoned for three units max.

BOSTON --- In a Boston Business Journal cover story, real estate reporter Thomas Grillo examines why Greater Boston's meager housing production has resulted in higher home prices that could threaten the region's economic growth, if employers and employees choose to move elsewhere.