Things seem to be looking up for the housing market in Somerville.

By Andrew Firestone

With local markets in turmoil and the real estate industry still struggling from the depths of the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis, Somerville stands atop its competitors. Even in the midst of global financial uncertainty, the housing market of the densest city in New England remains optimistic.

When Mario Marenghi bought up a foreclosed house in last May, he knew that there would be work to be done. Buying a two-family house at 102 Jacques St., he said he knew the investment of renovating and fixing it up was worth it.

“There’s a lot of money being spent in this city to make the city up-and-coming like everyone else,” said Marenghi. “I really think the Mayor is doing a phenomenal job.”

A victim of the housing crisis in 2008, the decrepit old house needed a lot of work done. Marenghi claims he “got it right back down to the walls, and built it back up again.”

Buying the house from Deutsche Bank through his personal broker at Century 21, Victoria Laws, Marenghi said he went through the process of tearing down and building up for one purpose; turning the $175,000 property into something worth living in.

“If I’m going to buy something and do something, I want to do it the right way and make it something that people are going to be happy with when they are in the house,” he said.

Location, location, location. This is the barebones of any person’s life choices; where do we want to live? Does it make sense to raise a family here?

Mayor Joseph Curtone said it was this impetus that has made and would continue to make Somerville and attractive place to raise a family. “People want to be in Somerville and there is a growing desire to send their kids to school here.  And they see Somerville as a city that’s on the move. A city that’s a healthy city, a safe city, it’s clean. It’s got a vision for its future, its development. It’s got strong culture and diversity. We’ve got everything going for us.”

The house on Jacques St. tells a story of what continues to be Somerville’s bedrock: being a City of neighborhoods. “We may be the most densely populated city in New England, but we’ve got a small-town feel here,” said Curtatone.

Tray ceilings, seven layers of re-molding and the use of an interior decorator for color may seem a bit excessive for a now retail-priced $249,900 two-family, but to Marenghi, it comes along with the territory.

“When I do renovations, I want to make sure that I’m selling something that is going to pass inspection, people are going to be happy. So, a lot of the stuff I buy, I end up doing a little bit more than the usual renovations that some of these guys do,” said Marenghi, who operates a towing company in Revere.

Curtatone said that the city needs to create these opportunities to attract the kind of middle-class families that would find respite in Somerville.

“We have to be diverse in our ethnicity and language, but also in our socio-economic status,” said Curtatone. “Everyone has to have an opportunity here to prosper, and we cannot lose the middle-class. This country is struggling to hang onto its middle class. Somerville has always been a blue-collar town and always will provide that middle class an opportunity.”

“If we’re that community that prices people out, and doesn’t recognize what it has to do to maintain and allow anyone in this city to grow and to prosper, we’ll lose our soul. And that we will not allow to happen, and by we, I mean the community,” said Curtatone.