Apartment hunting? Join the club.
Real estate agents and planning experts say there’s a tremendous need in today’s market for apartments in Greater Boston – MetroWest and the Milford area included.
Roy MacDowell Jr. and his sons Roy III and Todd are among the developers trying to capitalize on that demand, with two major developments in the works in MetroWest.
In Framingham, the MacDowells are now seeking a zoning variance to convert 66 percent of the 360 housing units they want to build on the Wayland line into rentals. Some neighbors are opposed, since the town’s Planned Unit Development bylaw – specifically created to regulate this long-awaited project – calls for a ceiling at 20 percent.
Roy MacDowell Jr., said that while Framingham is home to many apartments, most are 40 or 50 years old and show it.
Danforth Green, with its quality wood-frame construction, granite countertops and high ceilings, would appeal to renters “by choice,” he said – from young couples to empty-nesters and snowbirds who spend half the year here and then head south for the winter.
“That’s a big market,” MacDowell Jr. said.
The current need for apartments is especially strong among those younger and older households, said Jennifer Raitt, chief housing planner with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.
Raitt, drawing data out of the American Community Survey, said there are only 84 rentals available in MetroWest for every 100 households in the moderate and middle-income bracket that are looking.
The greater demand is causing rents to rise and desirable apartments to rent out immediately, real estate agent Arthur Weiss said.
Weiss is a rental specialist with Hammond Residential Real Estate, which has offices in Southborough, Framingham and other locations east to Boston.
“It’s also causing sort of a mini-boon in building of new rental units, not necessarily in Framingham but in the Greater Boston area,” Weiss said, now as some large projects are coming online.
“It remains to be seen if this is going to satisfy the demand or if we’re going to end up with too much supply,” Weiss said. After all, “God made the real estate market to come in cycles,” he said.
Developers are building apartment complexes around the region, from Avalon and Cloverleaf in Natick to Madison Place in Southborough, built under the state’s affordable housing law, Chapter 40B.
The MacDowells point to data in a recent report by the National Apartment Association and National Multi Housing Council that shows one in three Americans rents, and as many as 7 million new households will be looking for apartments this decade, half of all new households.
The report, “Apartments: The Building Blocks of a Smart Economy,” says the nation will need an additional 300,000 apartments per year to meet demand.
The MacDowells have a grand vision to beautify an old gravel pit off Old Connecticut Path in Framingham and build 360 townhomes and apartments. Ten percent would be priced affordable under state income guidelines, with the rest renting and selling at market rates.
The same team is now building an even bigger project called Legacy Farms in Hopkinton with 940 housing units, 240 of them for rent.
Elaine Lazarus, Hopkinton’s director of Land Use, Planning and Permitting, said the town needed more apartments. That was clear in the town’s 2004 housing plan and a report from the consultant who reviewed the Legacy Farms project.
“There’s a combination of a longstanding need and also an apparent market for that need,” she said.
Bonnie Biocchi, president and CEO of the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce, said affordable, market-rate rental housing is important for the region from a pro-business perspective.
It attracts young people who are drawn to the good jobs here, but can’t yet afford to buy, Biocchi said.
“That live/work model is generally an appealing thing for most folks,” she said.
Raitt said the rental inventory in greater Boston hasn’t kept up with an uptick in job growth.
“The more supply that’s available, the better,” she said.
Danielle Ameden can be reached at 508-626-4416 or dameden@wickedlocal.com.