In a dramatic change of pace, the June housing numbers are staggering, the Seaport is booming and North Central Massachusetts is struggling.
Actually that’s pretty much par for the course.
June’s median sale price for a single-family home in Massachusetts set another record, coming in at $395,000, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. That’s a 6.1 percent increase over last June; year to date the median price is up 6.3 percent. Despite the much ballyhooed lack of inventory, the number of sales was up year over year for the month, although only by a mere 72 sales.
But as it turns out, a rising tide does not lift all boats – or at least the tide is rising slowly in the state’s more rural communities.
As Jim Morrison reports this week, some of the commonwealth’s cities and towns have not only reached their 2005 peak median prices, they have blown past them and are well on their way to nearly doubling those prices. Those home hotspots are generally in the Greater Boston area, which seems to get bigger every day. It used to be we looked at the towns within the 128 belt; now it’s within 495 and in some cases pushing beyond that demarcation.
Meanwhile town in parts of the state far beyond the 495 belt continue to struggle. Hit hardest by all aspects of the recession – from foreclosures, to job losses, to opioid epidemics and everything in between – Massachusetts’ more rural communities are still struggling. A flood of foreclosures hitting the market depressed home values and some homeowners are still underwater, though reports from the area say that situation is improving. Other economic recovery factors still loom large, including lost jobs and wage stagnation.
The statewide numbers are particularly galling for those communities, as the gap widens between their experiences and Greater Boston’s. And let’s face it, Greater Boston is the major contributor to the statewide figures.
And of course Seaport is big contributor to Greater Boston’s success. Steve Adams reports the BPDA is asking WS Development to reconsider its plans to convert a 1-acre public park to what essentially amounts to a walkway – as it should. With hundreds of new residents and thousands of new jobs, a long-term view is needed to ensure that the neighborhood is walkable, pedestrian-friendly and well established for the future.
WS Development is also seeking to eliminate its approved 200,000-square-foot performing arts space. That conclusion echoes the results from a city-commissioned performing arts facility assessment released this month, which noted a lack of smaller, more accessible – and more affordable – performing arts spaces in the city.
The Seaport was once an artists’ enclave and its history should be respected; accessible performing and rehearsal space in the new development is a win for the Boston arts community and the right move by WS.
Like ripples in a pond, the Seaport’s success is Boston’s success; Boston’s success is the state’s success. Here’s hoping those ripples can help raise – and not rock – the boats in other parts of the state.
