Business Matters: Central Mass. by the Numbers
50%
Since the pandemic, the rental market has also latched onto the upward march of real estate prices. Local agents report rent prices in Worcester to have increased by 50% in the last year and 22% since the beginning of the year. Michael Martin, an agent at Keller Williams Realty, added that average prices in Worcester fare between $1,250 and $1,800 for 2-bedroom apartments, and toward $1,800 and $2,500 for three-bedroom apartments. A quick glance at Worcester rentals shows prices that barely stoop under $1,000 and quickly jump over $1,800 for over 400 listings.
01772
Southborough — ZIP Code 01772 — is made up of the villages of Fayville, Southville and Cordaville. Southborough was first settled in 1660 and was officially incorporated in July 1727, when it split off as the “south borough” of Marlborough. Today, the town’s 15.7 square miles holds a population of roughly 10,500 and lots of luxury homes. According to realtor.com, 22 single-family homes are for sale in Southborough. They range from a 1,664-square-foot three-bedroom home on a .43-acre lot listed for $498,000 to an 8,971-square-foot seven-bedroom home on 7.36 acres listed at $2,999,900.
23
Twenty three cancer-stricken firefighters from Massachusetts — including five from Worcester — filed a federal lawsuit this month alleging their illnesses are linked to PFAS, the group of chemicals that have become a topic of national alarm. The lawsuit alleges that PFAS in turnout gear and/or firefighting foam was a “substantial factor and proximate cause” of their cancers and related complications. The Environmental Protection Agency last month declared that two types of PFAS — PFOA and PFOS — were more harmful than previously thought and lowered the amount they deem to be safe in drinking water to effectively zero.
600
All across Massachusetts, residents have their minds on their pocketbooks as they watch inflation reduce how far their savings could go and erode their buying power. A Suffolk University and Boston Globe survey of 600 Massachusetts residents from July 20 to 23 found that eight out of 10 residents have faced some amount of financial hardship thanks to the last year of rising prices. Almost 26% of respondents said that the biggest source of stress in their lives right now is either "money/finances" (17%) or "inflation/cost of living/gas prices" (8.83%). When asked which recent development has affected them the most emotionally, 33.33% of survey respondents pointed to "inflation and the possibility of a recession," according to the poll.
2022
What first started as a virtual project for students to work on during the pandemic has since evolved into an award-winning senior capstone project for Worcester Technical High School students thanks to instructor Kim Youkstetter’s effort. Youkstetter, of Shrewsbury, was awarded the 2022 Entrepreneurship Honorable Mention Award by Kendall College at National Louis University and the Center for Advancement of Foodservice Education for taking her students’ dream culinary businesses and turning them into a revenue-generating reality. The students were expected to think of the type of business, the menu, logo and also present the project when it was finished, she said.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Business Matters: Central Mass. by the Numbers
