{"id":90,"date":"2024-06-11T17:41:38","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T17:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/?p=90"},"modified":"2024-06-11T17:41:38","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T17:41:38","slug":"housing-in-lakeville-is-going-through-the-roof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/?p=90","title":{"rendered":"Housing in Lakeville is going through the roof"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By John Vincent<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ENTERPRISE<\/em> CORRESPONDENT<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LAKEVILLE \u2013 Faith and David Moynihan of upstate New York are house-hunting in southeastern Massachusetts and they\u2019ve pretty much made up their minds where they want to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the towns we\u2019re really focusing on is Lakeville,\u201d said Faith. \u201cMy husband is a salesperson for Titleist in New Bedford and it has nice proximity to his sales area and we really like the area, with all the lakes and ponds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While they\u2019ll be selling their home in New York for $229,000, Faith said, \u201c$450,000 is what we\u2019re anticipating on spending. It\u2019s a little scary but we think we can make it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re definitely willing to pay a little more to get the area we want to live in. We have two children who are school age and we\u2019d like a decent school system for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s two other towns we like that we\u2019re looking at but the school system didn\u2019t rate as high \u2026 and Dighton and Rehoboth are not as accessible as Lakeville,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re just waiting for the right house to come on the market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Moynihans are not the only ones who want to move to Lakeville, and the town is quickly changing from a rural outpost to an enclave for well-off professionals who want to find an idyllic home to raise their children in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbara Raynor of Neves and Cashman Realty on Main Street said, \u201cPrices have risen considerably in the last five years. \u2026 I feel like it all began when the train came in and we got a different level of buyers in the area \u2026 couples earning a higher income and therefore able to buy the higher-priced homes and it\u2019s just been a continual upswing since then.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anne Marie Guinen, also of Neves and Cashman, agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe housing market right now is a better investment than the stock market, so they\u2019re putting their money where they can get their best return,\u201d said Guinen. Though she said some aren\u2019t even looking for the return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRather than thinking they\u2019re buying one house that they might switch for a bigger house in five years, they\u2019re building their dream house right off the bat,\u201d said Guinen. She said with lot prices going from $175,000 to $225,000, \u201cwhen you\u2019re paying that much more for raw land, you have to build a better home to justify it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think people are choosing Lakeville because of the MBTA station, because it\u2019s surrounded by highways, the school system, because of the quiet lifestyle,\u201d Guinen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a close-knit community, too,\u201d said Raynor. \u201cThey have a lot of involvement in the schools, they have a lot of community activity with the new library being built and the senior center \u2026 the Ted Williams Camp has been converted into a beautiful playground and ball field and they do things there over the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The median-priced home in Lakeville for the first quarter of 2004 was $368,500 according to the MLS Property Information Network Inc. That has risen steadily over the years from $215,000 in 2001, $267,000 in 2002 and $310,000 in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some homes have sold for almost double what they were a few years ago. A Colonial on Nachomet Road that sold for $279,549 in 2000 sold again for $437,900 in 2003. Similarly, a Colonial at 47 Old Powder House Road sold for $259,000 in 2000 and resold for $369,000 in 2002, according to town records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re seeing people travel farther and father to get to work because of the affordability and the quality of life,\u201d said Realtor Debbie Blais. \u201cA lot of people are looking for a nice neighborhood, and the quality of education and the tremendous amount of activity for kids they have here. All of those things are a tremendous draw and being able to step on the T and get to work in 55 minutes really helps,\u201d Blais said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe lagged behind other communities in upscale housing for a long time and we\u2019re catching up,\u201d Blais said, adding that towns to the north such as Sharon, Westwood and Canton have been a step ahead of Lakeville the whole way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said new construction is very much in demand, such as in The Settlement, Lakeville\u2019s newest and most ostentatious development, where she said house prices ranged from $550,000 to $800,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful subdivision,\u201d said Joe Malloch of Malloch Construction in Berkley who built many of the houses in The Settlement. \u201cIt\u2019s probably the finest one around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLakeville is an up-and-coming town and there was a need for larger houses. \u2026These are not your first- or second-time homebuyers. These were third- or fourth-time homebuyers. They knew what they wanted in a house. They want the 9-foot ceilings, the granite countertops and the tile flooring,\u201d said Malloch, adding that almost every one of the houses was custom-built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSurprisingly, quite a few of them were local people who lived in Lakeville who did a lot of traveling who were moving up to bigger home,\u201d Malloch said, though adding that there\u2019s also a good market for the smaller, less posh homes in Lakeville, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blais agreed, saying, \u201cThe market is still great down here \u2026everybody can\u2019t get into that bracket.\u201d She did say the bottom only goes down so far, though, as the price for a starter home in Lakeville is now $250,000 to $350,000. She said she just sold a raised ranch with one bathroom and no garage for $350,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very country town,\u201d said Realtor Zinta Betts, who has lived in Lakeville for 20 years. \u201cWe still have a lot of open land, a lot of woods and ponds, hence the name, Lakeville, and a lot bogs, so it\u2019s maintaining its rural character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great place to raise a family,\u201d said Betts. \u201cIt\u2019s 45 minutes to Boston, a half-hour to Providence and the Cape. You\u2019ve got accessibility no matter where you need to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article previously appeared in the Brockton Enterprise.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Vincent ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT LAKEVILLE \u2013 Faith and David Moynihan of upstate New York are house-hunting in southeastern Massachusetts and they\u2019ve pretty much made up their minds where they want to go. \u201cOne of the towns we\u2019re really focusing on is Lakeville,\u201d said Faith. \u201cMy husband is a salesperson for Titleist in New Bedford […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","hide_page_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archivearticles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}