Posted on Sept.5th, 2014
Somerville has been a home for many tenants who have loved the place for quite some time. For them, Somerville is not just a home but also a kind of community that is hard to find. They share love for neighborhoods where they work and live. But because of an unbelievable hike in home rents, they are forced to move from the city they loved and cherished.
Abigail Hammond is one of the tenants who live in the Dimick Street House and one of her roommates is moving out. The three-decker house where they used to live for 3 years is to be sold in mid-August. Tenants have rushed to search for new housing due to the 20% increase in rent on September. Still, Hammond is not firm whether she’d stay or leave.
Due to Somerville’s development and gentrification of the Union Square and MTBA Green Line extension that has come to completion, folks who make up the community lively and diverse are forced to move out the urban nexus to acquire more inexpensive housing. Taking them away from the community they helped build.
It is like a domino effect slowly taking the tenants down. In real estate, this domino effect is a chain reaction start out by intensifying rents and home prices in one community such as the high-cost in Boston real estate market leaving the tenants with no choice but look for housing that are more affordable.
In the past 4 years, median rents have raised as much as 30% in the Boston area. Somerville increased rent from $1,683 in 2011 to $2,183 in 2014 according to Zillow.com. Right after, the blight has changed to prettier streets and higher asset values. With the constant arrival of students flocking to Boston real estate, city living take higher flight in demand.
There are also local and foreign investors who make offers form 5% to 10% or even higher than the asking price. Residential areas are being sold in just within weeks or days. This is one contribution factor in the domino effect suffered by the tenants. The Dimick Street House where Hammond lives is recorded at $ 1.1 million.
Medford and Arlington, typically the next stops for reasonably priced housing stock after Somerville, are already seeing rises in home sales and rents. This is forcing folks to find to cities such as Quincy and Salem or even out of state.
One out of each two home owners in Eastern Massachusetts is said to be cost burdened. That is when you spend more than 30% of your income on housing. One out of four is shelling out more than 50%, this is how expensive the Massachusetts real estate is.
Anastasia is one of the tenants who separate from the Dimick Street house. She found an area in a Union Square apartment she will share with two others, similar setup as before, but for $100 more.
Somerville tenants are slowly being evicted from the home they once helped build. They have no choice but to leave because of the skyrocketing rents in their homes.