The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • B5

The Boston Globe B5 Business Mass. home sales up first time in 6 months WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2011 SINGLE-FAMILY HOME SALES IN MASSACHUSETTS Number of sales Number of sales monthly Median monthly sales price for the past year 3,847 3,847 $317,500 in July 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 In thousands $350 300 250 200 150 100 50 Despite gains, the overall market remains shaky By Erin Ailworth GLOBE STAFF Single-family home sales in Massachusetts last month posted their first year-over-year gains since January, providing a glimmer of hope for the state's sluggish housing market. Home sales rose 7 percent last month compared to July 2010, the Warren Group, a Boston firm that tracks real estate, reported yesterday. The Mas- ACROSS THE US Trace the fluctuations in home sales nationwide since 2000 at www.boston.combusiness. sachusetts Association of Realtors, which tracks a slightly narrower swath of the real estate market, also reported an increase in home sales yesterday, up about 14 percent.

Despite July's gains, the overall picture in the housing market isn't great, said Cory Hopkins, managing editor at Banker Tradesman, which is published by the Warren Group. Condominium sales fell last month compared to July 2010. Through the first seven months of 2011, single-family home sales are lagging the same period last year. In addition, Hopkins said, the increase in July sales is somewhat skewed by the temporary federal home buyers tax credit that was in effect for part of last year. Sales in July 2010 were particularly depressed following the expiration of the tax credit.

"I don't think this is the really super-awesome news that people were looking for," Hopkins said. "Given that we're now up over what was a pretty steep drop off isn't unexpected. Certainly, if we had been down that would have been a bigger problem." Karl "Chip" Case, economics professor emeritus at Wellesley College, said the housing market in Massachusetts is still extremely shaky. This year, 20,893 single-family homes have been sold in Massachusetts about 4,000 fewer than a year ago. Year to date, condo sales are down 26 percent, to 8,295 from 11,208 in 2010.

"The stock market has been down, the confidence has been down. We're talking about big deficits and a political freeze," Case said. "There's not a lot of good news to focus on and people don't HOUSING, Page B9 0 LJuly'10 July '11 GLOBE STAFF '07 '09 '11 LJuly '10 July '11 SOURCE: Warren Group DEBEE TLUMACKI FORTHE BOSTON GLOBE Somerville rentals with Cambridge amenities Developers target young professionals By Casey Ross GLOBE STAFF The new housing complex will feature a high-end community kitchen, a yoga studio, and a wireless suite for residents who prefer social networking to reality television amenities that would appeal to the hip, young population of Kendall Square. But Maxwell's Green won't be in Cambridge. It is rising in neighboring Somerville, where developers are betting their 184 rental apartments will attract young families and the 25- to 30-year-olds who, the developers believe, are an ever-growing part of this former industrial city's population.

"The lines between Cambridge and Somerville have really blurred," said Da-mian Szary, a principal of Davis Square Partners LLC, the joint venture developing the project. "Culturally, the cities are very similar, and so are the people who like living in them." Construction began this month, with Davis Square Partners becoming the first developer to build along the route for the planned extension of the MBTA's Green Line through Somerville to Medford. The MBTA project has been delayed repeatedly, but state officials granted the developer $490,000 to help support construction of housing near the planned line. Maxwell's Green is also on the Somerville Community Path, a bicycle and walking trail, and about half a mile from Davis Square. The property, a former industrial site, was occupied by the Maxwell Packaging factory and other manufacturers.

Maxwell's Green was proposed in 2004, but was stalled by the economic downturn. Another developer is building town homes on adjacent property. Maxwell's Green is unusual in Somerville both for its size and style. Davis Square is packed with trendy restaurants and bars that draw young people, but its housing stock is still dominated by triple-deckers and traditional homes on dense, residential streets. The project will occupy 5.5 acres and feature a large green courtyard.

The apartment buildings, designed by MAXWELL'S GREEN, Page B7 GOING UP See other new developments in the Boston area at boston.combusiness. Bryan Lyons (right), who is from Ireland and lives in Boston, searched long and hard for a job before he received an internship at Arbella. Living the dream. Sort of. Young Irish workers seek US jobs, but the market is similar to home Lot of the Irish Interns from Ireland in the United States under the State Department's J-l Work and Travel Pilot Program eso 520 292 ESSDRAS SUAREZGLOBE STAFF By Steve Holt GLOBE CORRESPONDENT Like generations of his countrymen, Bryan Lyons followed a well-trodden path from Ireland to Boston, leaving behind a shattered economy for the prospect of work in one of the world's financial centers.

What he and other young Irish workers have found instead is a job market little better than back home and a financial system only slightly less damaged. "At the start, we thought we'd walk into a job," said Lyons, 24, who attended the National College of Ireland in Dublin for human resource management. "We thought we'd come over here and find a job very quickly, but that wasn't to be." Lyons is in Boston under a US government visa that allows Irish applicants to pursue work in their field for a year. After a long and frustrating search, he finally found a position in human resources with Arbella Mutual Insurance with the help of the Irish International Immigrant Center of Boston. The center is assisting 70 interns in the United States under the J-l Intern Work and Travel visa, with another 1 00 or so expected to arrive in the next few months, said Megan Carroll, director of intern placement.

The jobs are scat- A NEW PERSPECTIVE Discuss your first internship experience at www.boston.combusiness. 2008 2009 2010 Estimated SOURCE: State Department Irish workers at Boston companies played softball together on the Common. tered in major cities, mostly on the East and West coasts. While seemingly little different from Americans fresh out of college and struggling to find work, Lyons and the many other Irish youth who have been placed in internships at Boston companies have an employment perspective few in this country would want to experience. They grew up during the 1 5-year Irish economic boom and were not familiar with the hardship of previous generations.

"There is a slight sense of entitlement growing up in the boom," Lyons IRISH, Page B7 Verizon workers back on job, but still worried Union members fear negotiations will stall again One customer service representative said her supervisor, who had to cover for her during the strike, gave her an icy reception as she returned to a pile of service requests. "My specific supervisor is not as warm and friendly as usual," said the union worker, Sharon Akhimienho But Dion, 43, said his supervisor was relieved to see the striking workers back because the workload had become so great. "The manager that was doing our work was so glad to have us back," said Dion. The 45,000 Verizon workers who belong to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America ended their work stoppage Saturday, VERIZON, Page B9 ByTarynLuna GLOBE CORRESPONDENT The job action is over, but many unionized Verizon workers continued to show solidarity over their contract dispute with the telecom giant. Back at work after ending the strike Saturday without getting a new contract from Verizon Communications some unionized workers continued to wear the same red T-shirts they sported during the two-week walkout; some of the shirts sported slogans such as "Will strike if provoked." "We still don't have a contract, so as a show of solidarity we're wearing our red union shirts," said John Dion, a service assistant.

At Verizon's New England headquarters in downtown Boston, some union workers reported the atmosphere inside was tense, as they returned to work alongside managers and nonunion employees whom some had heckled just a few days earlier. "It's an uncomfortable atmosphere and it's very tense in there," said James Reilly, a Verizon customer service employee, speaking outside the downtown Boston office. "Nobody is really comfortable because we don't know what's going to happen." ARAM B0GH0SIAN FORTHE BOSTON GLOBE Some union members wore red T-shirts to work at Verizon's office downtown Boston yesterday to show solidarity..