A number of Boston cheap homes will spring up from a reuse project that involves the conversion of a historic mill on Mission Hill into 62 residential units for low- to moderate-income residents.
According to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, the city will spend $25 million to turn three historic mill structures, which have been unoccupied for 25 years, into 62 new units to add to the current affordable housing stock of the city.
The housing project, called Oliver Lofts, will feature environmentally-friendly systems so it will earn a LEED Silver certificate from the U.S. Green Building Council. It will use high-efficiency cooling and heating systems and Energy Star appliances. Design and planning were done by The Architectural Team and WinnDevelopment and the general contractor is Keith Construction.
Menino said that 35 units at Oliver Lofts will be sold to households earning 60 percent or less of the median income in the area, eight will be for families who were formerly homeless but are now earning 30 percent or below the area’s median income and three live-work spaces will be sold to artists earning 100 percent or less of the area’s median income.
The project, which is expected to improve the stock of Boston cheap homes, will be partly financed by the city of Boston, the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development and the Affordable Housing Trust. The city was also able to secure tax credits with help from the DHCD, the Massachusetts Historic Commission and the National Park Service.
The conversion of the mill buildings, which were built in the 1800s for breweries along the Stony Brook River, is expected to generate about 100 new jobs.
Meanwhile, more than 60 distressed and bankruptcy properties were posted for scheduled foreclosure auctions in Boston by auction companies in March. The starting prices ranged from a low of $99,000 to a high of $1 million. Among these distressed properties were a ten-room house previously assessed at $700,000 and had a starting price of $119,000 and a six-room house previously assessed at $415,000 and had a starting price of $99,000.
In Massachusetts, foreclosure notices rose by 13 percent from January to 2,122 in February, but foreclosure deeds dropped by almost 20 percent to 917. Over the past several months, an average of 2,100 petitions to foreclose was filed every month, increasing the number of properties that entered lists of Boston cheap homes since the last months of 2009.