Housing Headlines

VINEYARD HAVEN --- With questions raning from the number of units to the building's box-like look to the lack of green space, the Martha's Vineyard Commission spent 90 minutes questioning housing trust officials about their plans to replace a distressed home next to the Stop & Shop with a $1.2 million six-unit affordable apartment building that would include three handicapped units.

NORWOOD --- Despite getting town meeting approval for a 40R permit to build 48 units, the owners of the Regal Press revealed at a recent planning board meeting that they would build only 40 units. The planning board reacted favorably to the change but did not vote at its July 14 meeting, continuing the matter to its next meeting on Aug. 25.

BOSTON --- The Globe is reporting that more and more homebuyers are leaning toward condos these days, with statwide sales up nine percent in the first five months of 2014 while sinlge-family home sales have declined by four percent. Prices for condos have risen 13 percent while single-family home prices have gone up six percent. This has resulted in a narrowing price gap - $320,000 for a median-priced condo and $340,000 for a house.

MIDDLEBORO --- The town's zoning board of appeals has granted local developer John Barges a two-year extension on his Ch. 40B comprehensive permit that proposes to build 234 condoiminiums on a 35-acre site near Rt. 495.

CONWAY --- Affordable housing is on the list of possible uses for an 11-acre town-owned site known as the Rose property and this small town of 1,800 located southwest of Greenfield is putting together a committee to study how to use the land.

WALTHAM --- A proposed voucher program that would assist "very low-income" Waltham households with Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds is in a holding pattern, as the city looks toward ways to oversee it. Supported by local WATCH CDC, the proposed Tentant Based Rental Assistance proposal asks that $500,000 in CPA funds be used to subsidize payments to landlords for 50 eligible households .