Vendors offered resources to potential homebuyers at a 2014 Free Housing Expo hosted by the Boston Home Center. Photo courtesy DND/Boston Home Center

The housing market in Dorchester has been experiencing a price surge that is in line with much of Boston in the past few years. But the “booming” state of the market belies a badly-needed influx of new units, which realtors and prospective buyers hope will accompany the Walsh administration’s plan to build out new housing stock.

Home prices have been rising rapidly, though the statistics are complicated somewhat by the recession causing an anomalistic dip in 2009.  The median home sales price has risen about 38 percent in Dorchester and 32 percent citywide — to $385,000 and $499,900 respectively — in the last five years, according to data from the Department of Neighborhood Development.

Laura Cahill of Cahill Properties said, “2005 was the peak of the market,” and home prices in Dorchester are considerably higher now, she said, with many buyers playing the waiting game. Realtors are facing limited inventory as demand for houses of a certain type and price — affordable multi-family houses, for the most part — significantly outpaces their availability.

As a precaution, buyers are making a point to be well-informed and pre-approved for homeownership before pursuing specific homes, said Marlea Mesh with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

“We’re all hoping that more sellers put their properties on the market,” Mesh said. Area realtors are largely in agreement that the atmosphere is currently favorable toward sellers, though that may change with the addition of new affordable housing options.

The city is in the second quarter of the Walsh administration’s “Housing a Changing City: Boston 2030” initiative, which is geared toward addressing a number of housing challenges posed by demographic changes and population increases.

Boston 2030 plans to create 53,000 units of housing by the year 2030, setting increasing goals for permitting and construction of new homes, as well as producing vacancies by requiring colleges to house more of their own students. The first quarterly report, updated through April, was reportedly on target to meet those goals. More than 13,000 units were either completed or in construction, with 21,100 either permitted or approved.

“The mayor and his administration have done a great job in laying out a plan for homeowners, making sure people who want to stay in this neighborhood are able to do it,” said Craig Galvin of The Galvin Group.

For potential buyers in any income bracket, the Home Center (BHC) is a promising place to start, said deputy director Rob Consalvo, the former city councillor from Hyde Park and Mattapan. The center offers classes and expos on a variety of homeowner topics, such as finding the best loans, determining credit scores, and establishing connections with realtors, Consalvo said.

The classes across neighborhoods have been packed, said Consalvo, who added: “There’s real excitement about home ownership in Boston.”

The Home Center is especially useful for those seeking to find a place in Dorchester, which, like the rest of Boston, is feeling significant demand from new residents. Experts said older residents are one of the fastest growing demographics in the city. Both aging baby boomers and suburban retirees have decided to situate in Boston, some selling off larger homes and reinvesting in apartments or condos in the city.

Dorchester, particularly the northern portions, has also been seeing an increase in college students housed in the area, said William “Buddy” Christopher, who leads the city’s inspectional services department. A more complete assessment of student residences will come in about a month and a half, he said, after universities submit mandatory reports on their off-campus impact.

The college student encroachment into Dorchester has happened slowly but steadily, as the area resisted somewhat the rent spikes of heavily-concentrated student areas.

“There have always been some, just not as inundated as in Allston and Brighton,” Mesh said.

Realtors were split over the direction in which the neighborhood is heading. One of the most oft-cited concerns in Dorchester is the desire not to become South Boston — typified by higher density structures, rising rent, and an increase in affluent young professionals. While Galvin believes that the layout of the neighborhood and the standard building structure mean that Dorchester will never resemble its near neighbor, others see the change as likely if not inevitable.

At the current rate, “I do think it is going to become unaffordable,” Cahill said. Though she later added, “It strikes me that there’s room for everybody.”

New high-density residentialprojects, such as DotBlock and the South Bay Town Center, promise increased development and housing, which would aid with the normal flow of homeowners and renters moving into higher-priced homes and freeing up more affordable ones.

That impact strikes most heavily at those already teetering on the edge, said Richard Ring, executive director of Family Aid Boston. The group helps manage the city’s shelter programs and, like BHC, assists low-income families in finding housing and staving off foreclosure.
Rents have joined rising home prices, escalating to $1,800 to $2,200 for two-bedroom units, Rich said, and homeless families with either federal Section 8 housing vouchers or Massachusetts Rental Vouchers are no longer able to fully leverage their vouchers toward market rate apartments, falling short by hundreds of dollars.

Rising rents “reflect the incredible demand for housing in the City and certainly underscore the importance of Mayor Walsh’s effort to develop affordable housing units in the City,” Ring said in an e-mail.

Despite being in the transitory phase of a tightly squeezed, ever more expensive market, experts remain hopeful and anticipating an increase in the affordable housing stock.

“All of this, I think, points toward people staying here or people coming here and finding out how great a place it is to live,” Mesh said.