CREDIT UNION
HIP, INTEGRITY, LEADERSHIP
SEPT. 2015
COMMITMENT
Est ab li s h e d 1 8 7 2
THE
FINANCIAL
SEE THE 2015 CREDIT UNION HEROES! PAGE 12
www.bankerandtradesman.com
WEEK OF MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2015
SERVICES
AND
REAL
ESTATE
WEEKLY
FOR
MASSACHUSETTS
A Publication of The Warren Group
CREInsider
REAL ESTATE RECOVERY
The
RECOVERY STILL ARRIVING WEST OF ROUTE 128
A SUPPLEMENT TO BANKER & TRADESMAN
DEFERRED MAINTENANCE
No Escape From New Pollution Standards Federal Wastewater Agreement Requires Cape Cleanup
It’s All About The Jobs, And Boston Is Where They Are – For Now
BY STEVE ADAMS BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF
D
DENNIS
UPWARD BOUND BY JIM MORRISON | BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF
S
ingle-family home sales and prices in Greater Boston have in many cases surpassed their pre-crash peak, but the data for cities and towns outside Route 128 tell a different story. Through the end of July 2015, the median sale price of a single-family home in the Bay State was $340,000, versus $355,000 in 2005. For the cities and towns outside of Route 128, it was just $295,000, down 8.45 percent ($36,000) from the July 2005 year-to-date numbers, according to data from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. The cities and towns inside Route 128 fared a little better. The median price of a single-family home in those communities was $318,700 through the end of July 2015. Towns in Southeastern Massachusetts like Sandwich ($339,000), Dennis ($335,000) and Hull ($337,000) are in the region where the home prices best reflect the statewide numbers. The northwestern corner of the state is home to the cities and towns with the lowest median sales prices, like Springfield ($138,000), Clarksburg ($129,000) and North Adams ($115,000). Continued on Page 8
2005: $340,750 2010: $310,000 2015: 335,000
SANDWICH
HULL
SPRINGFIELD
$361,500
$384,500
$300,000 $339,000
$329,000 $337,000
$138,000 $123,250 $127,000
CLARKSBURG
NORTH ADAMS
WESTON
$129,000
$115,000
$1,261,000
$113,500 $153,138
$107,000 $127,750
$1,111,000 $1,283,500
DOVER
LINCOLN
MASSACHUSETTS
$1,001,000 $768,700 $1,022,500
$1,150,000
$ 355,000
$885,000 $1,030,000
$ 297,000 $ 340,000
*Year-to-date through July, all years
CONTENTS
Source: The Warren Group
Credit Union Heroes................................................ 12
Points ....................................................................... 4
Residential .............................................................. 8
Classified Sections ................................................. 21
By The Numbers ....................................................... 6
Banking & Lending .................................................. 9
CRE Insider ............................................................ B1
In Person .................................................................. 7
Commercial & Industrial ........................................ 10
Records Section...................................................... C1
evelopers on Cape Cod operate under challenging conditions: limited access to sewers and increasingly stringent environmental regulations that reflect heightened concerns about polluted water in the Bay State’s coastal vacationland. The federal government’s first new wastewater plan for the Cape in nearly four decades could raise the hurdles even higher, while imposing clean-up costs that accould top $5 billion on communities, ac regulacording to environmentalists and regula tors. Approved Sept. 18, the Environmental qualProtection Agency’s Cape Cod water qual ity management plan gives the Cape’s 15 communities until June to submit plans to reduce pollution in 13 bays and estuaries stormwastemming from septic systems, stormwa ter outfalls and sewage treatment plants. Continued on Page B11 COMMERCIAL INTERESTS
Chiofaro Misses The Boat
Aquarium Garage Still Stands As Tower Proposal Inches Through Review BY SCOTT VAN VOORHIS BANKER & TRADESMAN COLUMNIST
A
year ago, Don Chiofaro fretted aloud in this column that his proposed twin-tower waterfront office and condominium palace might miss the current real estate cycle, given the glacially slow pace of the city and state review process. Well, I’m here to inform him that his fears have come true: The chances he will be able to bulldoze that hideous Aquarium parking garage and start building his towers before the next downturn hits are now in the single digits and dwindling by the day – if he gets the chance at all, that is. A year ago, Chiofaro held out a glimmer of hope that he could still make it, and that by this time in 2015, there might be a light at the end of the tunnel in a Continued on Page 3