This one bedroom colonial at 1156 North Pleasant street, only a stone's throw from North Amherst center or Hobart Lane and Meadow Street--ground zero for student party houses--sold in early March for $264,000, well below its accessed value of $373,500.
The new owners, Catherine and Morten Jensen-Hole, will go before the Planning Board on April 18 for a rubber stamp "site plan review" to e-x-p-a-n-d from one family (maximum of four unrelated occupants) to a two family, or eight unrelated tenants.
Even though the rental income potential doubles, the assessor does not increase the valuation of the property whatsoever, so the tax revenues to the town remains the same. Last week the Zoning Board of Appeals approved (as did the Planning Board) just such a conversion for a yellow house at 156 Sunset Avenue, but not before neighbors made their concerns loudly known about the quality of life issues associated with non-owner occupied student rentals.
Property Card for 1156 North Pleasant Street, Amherst
Bad direction for the town to go in.
ReplyDeleteYeah like "Invasion of the body snatchers," one by one they become converted...
ReplyDeleteRight, and while every place else is in a recession, business and businesses is booming. What a bunch of cry babies. Realtors are selling houses, Antonios is selling slices, so get over it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, houses and slices...what more could you possibly ask for.
ReplyDeleteActually, I can't imagine a better spot for a 2 family house. It's on Town water. It's on Town sewer. It's on an existing road, where no one would notice a few extra cars. There's a bus stop nearby. There are already apartments in the area. And frankly, the existing house is huge - most families would not need that much space. A well managed 2 family house there sounds fine with me.
ReplyDeleteMining towns have lots of coal dust, factory towns have belching smokestacks. Every place has something. Amherst has students, so get over it.
ReplyDeleteAmherst loves the 99% who act mature, work hard to get their degrees and then fly off into the real world to make a difference--if only with their own lives.
ReplyDeleteYes Anon 11:03 PM, as long as its "well managed."
Hi Larry
ReplyDeleteThey don't need permission to expand from one-family to two-family. That permission was already granted by Town Meeting a few years ago, via a zoning change.
The owners will go before Planning Board for a site plan review for a permitted use.
Thanks (I knew that but perhaps did not make it clear).
ReplyDeleteI saw something else -- and it really is worthy of note. It sold in 1976 for $50K -- which if you go to the BLS (US Govt) inflation calculator comes to $189K for today.
ReplyDeleteIt sold for $264K, which is $75K above what inflation would suggest it should sell at -- but $109,500 LESS than its appraised (taxed at) value ($373.5K)!!!!! In other words, it is taxed on a value 50% higher than it actually sold at.
Now if I lived in that neighborhood, I would be screaming for an abatement if not re-evaluation based on this. Prop 2.5 never anticipated massive collapses in the fair market value of houses but there is a SJC ruling that the towns have to evaluate at 100% and that would imply that they can't evaluate at more than that any more than less than it, wouldn't it?
The tax base in this town has to start collapsing -- and then what?
then i guess the sky will fall on our heads, ed.
ReplyDelete