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wbjournal.com | December 23, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 23 Housing 202 Brigham St., Northborough, MA • 508-393-2444 For Tee Times: www.juniperhillgc.com Juniper Hill Golf Course Celebrating 90 Years of Golf • Friendly Atmosphere • Two well groomed, established courses • No membership fee • Excellent meeting facilities • 36 Challenging Holes • Top 10 Public Golf Course in Massachusetts • Golf Teaching Center Call us at 508-351-9500 Give the gift of golf Gift certificates for golf, lunch, lessons and equipment are available in the Pro Shop 508-393-2444 Outings & Functions 3 to 300 guests in a variety of settings Continued on page 24 much appreciation, and … if you don't buy a good building, you have main- tenance problems and you have tenant problems," said Allen. High-profile multifamily projects like e Revington and e Cove have sapped the market for tenants willing to pay higher rents in the city's nicer triple-deckers, he said. Old stock Despite a cooling off, Worcester and its immediate suburbs still account for a large majority of Worcester County transactions, according to CoStar. Much of the city's existing multi-fam- ily stock is of the one-star or two-star variety, defined as buildings needing ren- ovation work or functionally obsolete. About 56.9% of Worcester's rental units are in buildings built before 1960, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Still, property owners are finding value in these types of properties; the average one-to-two-star apartment in Worcester draws an asking rent of $1,590, a 51.1% increase from 10 years ago and the same amount drawn by three-star apartment across the country. Worcester's colleges and universi- ties have long supplied local property owners with a consistent supply of shorter-term renters. is remains true, although some degree of change may be on the horizon as more schools like Worcester Polytechnic Institute look to expand the amount of univer- sity-operated student housing, said Worcester-based RE/MAX Partners owner Jimmy Kalogeropoulos. "A saving grace for Worcester is you can go to areas that are a little bit higher price point by Worcester State [Uni- versity] or WPI, although I don't even know if that's true anymore," he said. East and west Collette has seen demand for single-family and owner-occupant multi-family properties to the east of Worcester, where young profession- als working closer to Boston can still enjoy the ame- nities of the city without having to navigate through the city on their morning com- mutes. "Most of those folks say to me they don't care as much about being in down- town Worcester, because they're com- muting east." he said. "e Worcester area works for them, so they almost all buy in Holden, West Boylston, Shrews- bury, and Graon." Communities to the west of Worcester have less existing multifamily stock, with only 24.4% of Leicester's 4,371 being in multi-family buildings. When a property can be found, buying in these areas can have its advantages, said Collette. "You buy an old Victorian that was turned into a four family in a place like Leicester, and you buy it for like $450,000, you can have cash flow on day one, pretty good money," he said. "e Jimmy Kalogeropou- los, broker owner at RE/MAX Partners Chris Collette represented the seller in the Worcester sale of this Plantation Street three-decker, which went for $770,000 in December 2023.