Editor:
I found your story on the ten (10) most expensive houses in Hopkinton rather shallow.
Where are the affordable housing units promised years ago and that the town signed up for and has been receiving credit from the state? I thought we had 800 affordable housing units earmarked for Lumber St from Constitution Dr to the gun club. Not one shovel has hit the ground for these, yet we keep seeing McMansions going up all over town.
I have lived in this town for over 50 years and watched it go from sleepy, rural and farmland to over-privileged, high-end housing that no one on an average salary could possibly afford. Not to mention that these upper-income families move into town, supposedly for our “oh so wonderful” school system and then, when their kids graduate, they sell up and move out.
When are we going to see some housing units of reasonable size and actually affordable for young families? We are pricing our longtime residents out of town because they cannot afford the taxes on the overinflated property values created by these behemoths that are being built.
When are we going to have a town where people move in, set down roots and stay? We are nothing but a bedroom community for Boston and are quickly turning into a gentrified, overpriced snob zoned area.
Kathy Burns, Hopkinton Resident
Your first sentence made me laugh out loud! When I first read that article I couldn’t come up with the right word to describe it. “Shallow” may not be right, but it’s better than anything I could come up with! Where the Toll Brothers’ $3M new construction homes didn’t crack the top 10 most expensive list, you have to wonder what the heck is happening in this town.
The new high-end homes get a lot of attention, but the housing in Legacy Farms includes many attached townhomes and apartments that are more reasonably priced. For young families looking to move to a town in MetroWest with a top school system, Hopkinton is a far better choice than most. But the housing stock is still pretty much in the mid-to-upper range, largely out of reach for families of modest income.
Right on Kathy!!!!
A 2 bedroom townhouse condo at Legacy is $799,000 + hoa +taxes + insurance, Zillow estimates that the monthly payment would be $5766.00 = $69,192 a year assuming no increases in taxes and insurance (ha!) To get that approximate rate, you’d need a down payment of $160,000. If your housing payment equaled 30% of your annual income, you’d need to be making $225,000 annually to afford this 2 bedroom condo. Market price two bedroom apartments in town run about $3200 – $3500 per month and require or $38,400 – 4,200 a year + utilities, etc.
BTW, The state’s median income was $89,026 & for Hopkinton it was $179,172 in 2021. We are a rich town and we seem to only want to cater to rich people. (And don’t get me started on that $175,000,000 school.)
Town should stop catering to the people moving in to town and just tell them if they dont like the town the way it is MOVE!! They have wasted enough of our tax dollars
What about “senior housing.” Nothing has been built in this town since the 1960s! This should certainly be an alternative for senior citizens.