Housing Headlines

HARVARD --- The four-unit affordable housing complex on Fairbank Street known as the "Inn" has been sold at foreclosure by North Middlesex Savings Bank to Harvard resident Rick Curtin, who has a real estate business based in Waltham. Curtin, who bought the property from the Harvard Trust Non Profit Properties for $226,000, said he does not yet have definitive plans for the property. All current residents have moved or will move out of the property. The non-profit still owns the Elms, a five-unit affordable housing property in town.

DORCHESTER --- Longtime city real estate watcher and local cable TV news reporter Chris Lovett has penned another thorough story on what's happening in the Dorchester real estate market. Lovett reports that rents are rising and properties are selling, some for more than the asking price.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Town Meeting voters overwhelmingly approved the creation of an affordable housing trust fund, which will give the town greater flexibility in using local funds to address the need for affordable housing, a shortage exacerbated when flood waters caused by Tropical Storm Irene damaged most of the homes at The Spruces mobile home park.

WORCESTER --- Local real estate watchers say the recent surge in sales of homes, condos and multifamilies for less than $100,000 is another sign that the region's real estate market is in recovery.

SALEM --- The battle over whether to save St. Jospeph's Church or knock it down to build affordable housing has intensified, with a local builder asking historic preservationists to stop distorting a report his company did to estimate the costs of renovating the church into housing as an alternative to razing it.

BEVERLY --- The Beverly Housing Authority plans to build two, two-family homes near the Montserrat commuter rail station for low-income families. The houses will be built on Spring Street on land the housing authority bought from the MBTA in 2002. Construction is expected to start in late summer or early fall, with the homes opening sometime in 2013.