Housing secretary tackles Franklin County housing crisis

GREENFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Secretary of Housing Ed Augustus spent much of his day in Franklin County with multiple public events.

This morning Secretary Augustus got to take part in a groundbreaking for a single-family property here in Greenfield. Something he says this area needs a lot more of.

To the misfortune of people looking to buy real estate locally, it’s more of the same according to the Realtor Association of the Pioneer Valley, inventory is down and prices are up. As part of the State’s fight against the ongoing housing crisis, Housing Secretary Ed Augustus attended a groundbreaking for a single-family property in Greenfield, which has been unoccupied for more than a decade and is the first in the region to use the Special Attorney Receiver process through the Attorney General’s office.

“Even though it’s one unit it makes a difference to this neighborhood to have a building that has been vacant for 10 years,” stated Augustus.

A housing crisis is being seen throughout the Commonwealth but here in Franklin County where incomes are still low and the inventory of homes is still low the effects may be even greater. Just more of the reason Secretary Augustus says that this project is symbolic of more work that needs to be done.

Secretary Augustus adds, “You know one of the challenges we have here in Franklin County is that the cost of doing housing is the same as it is in Boston but the salaries are not the same, the rents that you can get are not the same as the price of homes here you can sell are not the same it relies on a lot of the programs that we have.”

The inventory of available property throughout the Pioneer Valley is down 24.4% from 606 homes for sale in April 2023 to 458 homes this April. A statistic so glaring, that the message from the City of Greenfield was that we can’t build homes fast enough.

The good news from the most recent report on single-family homes is that sales are up right now compared to a year ago.

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Heath Kalb is a reporter who has been a part of the 22News team since 2022. Follow Heath on X @HeathKalb and view his bio to see more of his work.

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