Holy Luxury
Several luxury condos at St. Aidan – a mixed-income housing development that’s been in the works for about a decade – are on the market. The Brookline development includes a mix of 59 affordable apartments, condos and luxury townhouses.
Some readers might recall that St. Aidan’s is a project with a long and controversial history. The project, developed by the nonprofit Planning Office for Urban Affairs, involved the conversion of a closed Catholic church into housing. Construction, initially slated to begin in 2005, was delayed by a lawsuit filed by abutters and residents. Construction finally started about two years ago.
The development was completed last year, and The Teller noticed that at least five of the luxury units have sold. Two units fetched more than $1.1 million in January and three other units sold for between $1.25 million and $1.96 million in December. The townhouses are listed by Hammond Residential.
Pleasantly Surprised
Members of the North Shore Association of Realtors were treated to a preview of a new, and rare, Web site at the association’s annual meeting last week. New because its, well, new, and rare because The Teller can barely find anything wrong with it to mock!
NSAR (Not to be confused with NSTAR, the purveyors of electricity – except during major storms and other natural disasters) was one of only three local Realtor associations in the country chosen to participate in a pilot program sponsored by the National Association of Realtors that aims to create web sites with local information for homebuyers and homeowners alike.
The site, www.northshoremahomeprograms.com, is designed to be a source for information on financial assistance programs for residents and potential homebuyers in Essex County.
Yes, The Teller is a snark machine, and we really wanted to find something to mock on the site. But in all honesty, it’s totally solid and super useful. Period. Please, don’t tell anyone – we have a reputation to uphold to vast legions of uncaring bankers. And tradesman.
Interested in finding out what kind of down payment assistance is available to say, a first-time homebuyer, with an annual salary of $50,000, in Essex? Turns out, the state’s softsecond program is for you.
Are you a low- to moderate-income family in Amesbury looking for a low-cost loan to help bring your home up to code or eliminate lead paint? May we interest you in the town’s Housing Rehabilitation program?
Searching for exactly what you want is simple and easy, and a broad listing of state and town programs shows just how much help really is available out there. It’s nice to see.
OK, fine, so if we had to dial up the snarkometer a bit, we would say that the rotating images on the homepage of young couples so very much in love with each other and their new homes is fairly gag inducing. OK, more than fairly.
But we feel ok leaving it at that. NSAR, you done good by The Teller.
This time…
