Dive Brief:
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Boston is offering 250 small, city-owned lots for sale to contractors in an effort to stock the city’s shrinking inventory of homes that first-time buyers can afford.
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The lots are designated for homes affordable to families earning between $60,000 to $100,000 a year. Each lot is large enough for a single-family home or duplex, and the city has said it expects the sale to yield 350 homes, two-thirds of which must be sold at prices that middle-income buyers can afford. The new owners will be restricted from raising the home prices at resale by more than 3% a year.
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The effort is part of Mayor Marty Walsh’s plan to spur construction of tens of thousands of new homes in the city, where median-income families can afford only 23% of the units on the market, according to a 2014 report.
Dive Insight:
Although the number of home sales in Massachusetts soared by 10% in December, 2014 sales of single-family homes slumped a bit statewide. At the same time, the median price of a home there rose 2.3% last year, and for-sale inventory has declined every month for nearly three years, according to The Boston Globe. At the same time, demographers are predicting a population boom in Boston.
The mayor’s plan to add tens of thousands of moderately priced housing units by the city’s 400th anniversary in 2030 includes tax incentives and land deals that the city hopes will spur construction. But it also includes some controversial proposals, including one to cut wages for laborers who work on the homes.