So FDIC Chair Sheila Bair she may be the “second most powerful woman in the world” and might even make the ‘top ten’ for most famous person to live in the People’s Republic of Amherst, but that still does not garner her an over 50% profit when selling her humble Amherst abode.
Purchased for $355, 000 in 2002 and renovated to the tune of another $89,500 the Victorian house went on the market this spring for $795,000 then quickly dropped to $695,000 to almost exactly its assessed value ($692,800) then, puff, came off the market to await better times.
The (currently rented) house is directly across the street from Amherst’s by far most famous resident, Miss Emily’s brick family home, owned by Amherst College. You would think (since the Dickinson Homestead will never be torn down to make room for a Wal-Mart) that would increase the value any property within spitting distance.
Oh well. I’m sure Ms. Bair’s salary and benefits, as FDIC Chair will allow her to carry the property for a year or two. And even if she gets the higher price, it probably will not be enough buy her a comparable sized home in Washington, DC.
Thus highlighting one of the problems in bucolic Amherst.
Whiz kids come to our illustrious flagship Umass simply to use that position as a stepping-stone to BIGGER-and-BETTER things, and then want to flip their property for 50% over what they paid a few years earlier.
Thus the town Assessor considers those sales and, like a rising tide, increases the evaluations of
every home in the neighborhood. Where some folks have lived
all their lives (and their parents and grandparents before them) and simply can’t afford to pay those outrageous town property taxes.
Gentrification—of the snobby kind.
The "Reclaimer": This bad boy digs down 18" and shreds the material for reuse.
Job is farmed out to Warner Bros. but under oversight by Amherst DPW
Yesterday: 7:00 PM
State Senator Stan Rosenberg, Dave Sullivan (our next DA) and Congressman Olver march in the Amherst July 4 Parade.
Yeah, you would kind of think a town with a $60+ million budget could afford a press relations person to let folks know when cool new equipment like the Quint arrive--especially since we paid almost $635,000 for it.
Amherst PD motorcycle cops lead the parade.
Immediately followed by VFW color guard
And then Parade Co-Grand Marshal's Police Chief Charlie Scherpa and Fire Chief Keith Hoyle (both BIG men in more ways than one)
Tractors representing Amherst's agrarian youth
Smokey the bear (he too is anti-smoking)
A very, very BIG tractor.
Hadley's colorful Quint (Amherst has one coming soon)
Yeah, the Amherst League of Women Voters carried "approved" signs although I'm told they were pretty aggressive about handing out literature along the parade route and turned off a lot of women and children (my family for sure.)
