Real Estate

Sales of single-family homes in Massachusetts fell in September while the median selling price showed little year-over-year movement, according to two industry reports released Tuesday.

The work Marlborough planners did to create a mixed-use overlay district in the city's southwest quadrant paid off, now that several development proposals are in the works. But now they're turning their attention away from the office parks that line Interstate 495, and inward to downtown. It's not that downtown Marlborough is in dire straits. Mark Racicot, land use planning director for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), said its ample parking, historic architecture and quaint streetscape elements — such as ornamental lighting — make Marlborough's downtown the envy of many other communities. ”There are so many communities that would love to have what Marlborough has,” Racicot said.

Geronimo Properties of Leominster said it purchased the SouthFitch Shopping Center, a 30,000- square-foot retail property at the corner of John Fitch Highway and Summer Street.

Consigli Construction of Milford, which is managing the construction of a new elementary school in Connecticut to replace the site of a gunman's fatal rampage in 2012, has broken ground for the 87,000 square-foot state-of-the-art Sandy Hook School, the company announced Tuesday.

Home sales in Worcester dropped by 22 percent in September over last year, while the median sale price of a single-family home climbed, RE/MAX of New England announced Monday.

Operating system startup company VMS Software Inc., has leased nearly 20,000 square feet of office and lab space in Bolton, according to O'Brien Commercial Properties Inc., which brokered the deal for the company.

The U.S. housing market continued to roll along as both housing starts and building permits beat expectations for September, according to data released by the Obama administration.

Prudential Prime Properties has joined the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network and is now operating as Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices N.E. Prime Properties, the Maynard-based company announced.

The Marist Fathers of Boston have struggled to sell a former religious retreat center on Framingham's Pleasant Street since it was listed for sale in the spring of 2012, and after almost a year-and-a-half of working with a Waltham-based health care company, the order of priests is back at square one. Gregory Katz, an attorney with the Boston firm Ropes & Grey, who represents the Marist Fathers, said opposition from neighbors who did not want Walden Behavioral Care to construct and open an inpatient psychiatric treatment center in the residential area forced his client to abandon a purchase-and-sale agreement with Walden.

The Marist Fathers of Boston and Walden Behavioral Care of Waltham have agreed to part ways after more than a year of efforts to develop an inpatient treatment center for patients with eating disorders at the former Marist Retreat Center in Framingham.