HOW WE GOT HERE
Learn more about the history of Lincoln’s housing development here
LINCOLN’S CURRENT HOUSING
There is no way to assess the actual market value of all the housing in town, because what a buyer will pay for any housing unit depends on factors that cannot be accurately assessed in the abstract. The closest approximation for “value” of a unit of housing we can rely upon here the town’s current assessed value for tax purposes. Though it is imprecise, it is the only tool available. Fortunately, the assessed value also lets us calculate the monthly real estate taxes, which are an important factor in assessing the affordability of a unit of housing.
Method: We used the town’s assessment list. From that list we cull any town owned or institution owned property, with a couple of narrow exceptions. For example, the Pierce House and the Codman House and the Gropius are not currently used as housing (or as exclusively housing) but because they are valued as if they were, and in theory, they could be, they are included. Other town-owned property, institutional property that could not reasonably be used as housing, and undevelopable parcels of land are excluded. Immediately, where a parcel of land is assessed for less than $100,000 (often having an address of 0 ___ street) the parcel is assumed undevelopbale and omitted from the list. That process leaves 2236 units of housing, slightly more than the US census households estimate of 2020: 1836.
Of note, we did not include the Commons in this analysis (but did include all other age restricted units in town) because the delivery of services, the availability and number of units, and the marketability of units is not easily untangled.
Here is what the 2236 units look like, per $500,000 bucket:
Here’s what the 2236 units look like up to $3.5M per $100,000 bucket: