THE ONE ACRE FACTOR
Aesthetically pleasing, larger building sites (1-1.5 acres) are also attractive for a variety of other reasons. Among them, conservation and ecology come to mind: land becomes less dense and the effects of pollution decrease. Conversely however, recent studies by the Massachuestts Institute of Technology Center for Real Estate and the Massachusetts Housing Partership conclude that considerably less housing is now produced in Massachusetts than what is needed to sustain the state’s economic growth. Additionally, as rules and regulations call for larger building sites, the supply of homes becomes smaller, thus driving up housing prices. Consequently, requirements for larger building lots, which seem to be the rule of thumb nowadays, beg the question of affordability. Could this, in part, be why young people, families, and those of lesser means cannot afford to live here on Cape Cod?
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AMERICAN HERITAGE REALTY |
Along with assorted trends affecting home construction in recent years, the median size of building lots, today approaching one acre, has nearly doubled from the norm of twenty to thirty years ago.
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