New Builds & House-Hacking in Worcester

[Kevin Marschall]

Hi all,

I own a duplex in Worcester that I'm currently house-hacking... both first home and first investment property that I'm coming up on a year of owning and it's been great so far. The more I see and learn about this city (I relocated here), the more I feel like it's a fantastic area to be that's in the midst of both a seismic and rapid transition to becoming a top-tier place to live and great destination for young people like myself. I took the express train to Boston out of Union Station for a work event a few weeks ago and I was amazed at how many people were taking on it and commuting in from Worcester.

Being around here, and especially in the busy summer months, I have noticed what seems to be an incredible volume of new residential construction happening. Within just 1/4 mile of my house in a well-established neighborhood, I've counted 5 ongoing or recently completed projects that are now for sale. The most popular style seems to be the very common and recognizable "attached single family" - a single structure of two side-by-side townhouses with a garage, 2-3 bedrooms, 1.5-2 baths, with four total exterior walls and a shared roof. Textbook example photo below:

https://media.mlspin.com/photo.aspx?mls=72435280&n=0&w=1024&h=768

The prices of these places are jaw-dropping to me. A hot market and what I assume is high demand for this style has them going for upwards of $300k per side in many instances. I am sure builders are making a killing on these as it's practically the definition of killing two birds with one stone to get $600k out of a single construction that's not much larger in total square footage than a nicely-sized single family home.

It's my personal opinion that owning one of these types of units would not be a great idea as you are conjoined by default to your neighbors and there's an inherent possibility of headaches and disputes down the line with a shared roof, landscaping, street frontage, etc. However, the idea of owning a whole one of these as a two-unit duplex and house hacking it is EXTREMELY intriguing to me. My feeling is the features, finishes, and quality of these units would attract desirable, long-term tenants and a good builder should mitigate ownership headaches as well as avoiding your typical "old-house" problems like lead paint, asbestos, horsehair plaster walls, etc.

One thing I'm not seeing is a deviation in the system for these. I've never seen one offered as a package with both units together, nor a string of these constructed and offered for rent rather than for sale. I'm sure it's a matter of builders and agents not fixing a system that isn't broken. Research tells me market rent for these types of units runs $1800-2400 depending on size and location. That's tough considering prices are ~$300k as mentioned, but I think that's also a larger issue that's affecting anyone trying to get into the Worcester market as a whole right now. I love the idea of buying a plot of land and having one of these built, maybe even modular, but I can't imagine getting any kind of a break as a "2 for 1" special on the going rate since it's practically a guarantee that two attached units can be sold separately for top dollar anyway.

To get to my point, I am just curious if anyone has any rental experience with these types of properties? Possibly even house hacking in one? Would be really curious to see any stories about building / buying one of these as a whole to own both units as well, or even just general experience.

Cheers!

Kevin