Scott Van Voorhis
Banker & Tradesman ColumnistScott Van Voorhis is a freelance journalist and columnist with a focus on residential and commercial real estate.
by Scott Van Voorhis | Oct 4, 2015
Appraisers say new Federal Housing Administration policy requires them to work outside their expertise and assess structural and mechanical systems, causing more confusion among the general public and exposing them to increased liability.
The FHA’s Single-Family Housing Policy Handbook, which applies to all FHA appraisals completed after Sept. 14, 2015, requires appraisers to report “if the roof has less than two years of remaining life” and “examine the heating system to determine if it is adequate for healthful and comfortable living conditions.”
by Scott Van Voorhis | Sep 27, 2015
A year ago, Don Chiofaro fretted aloud in this column that his proposed twin-tower waterfront office and condominium palace might miss the current real estate cycle, given the glacially slow pace of the city and state review process.
by Scott Van Voorhis | Sep 21, 2015
It may be human nature to seek a silver lining after a disaster of some sort or another, but sometimes a bungle is just a bungle.
Such is the case with the now mercifully defunct Boston 2024 Olympic bid, which by any rational estimation amounted to a first-class screw-up of epic proportions.
Yet, oddly, there is already some revisionist thinking going at City Hall that the whole fool’s circus of pie-in-the-sky proposals and sleazy political salesmanship might have actually have some residual value.
by Scott Van Voorhis | Sep 13, 2015
Think office tower prices have gone bonkers? Just look at some of the insane numbers new luxury apartment towers in Boston and Cambridge are fetching.
Luxury units are flooding the downtown Boston market right now, with a new apartment tower seemingly on
by Scott Van Voorhis | Sep 6, 2015
Here’s more evidence that the humble apartment building is now the most hated and feared form of new development in Massachusetts (barring any future proposal to stash spent nuclear fuel in the Blue Hills, that is). You would think someone was proposing clear-cutting Walden
by Scott Van Voorhis | Aug 30, 2015
Greater Boston’s surging real estate market, from new skyscrapers to multimillion-dollar penthouse sales, seems likely to dodge the China bullet. If nothing else, it is not 2008 all over again. Yet the growing concern about a slowdown in China’s overheated economy and...
by Scott Van Voorhis | Aug 23, 2015
Let’s call the frothy market for downtown Boston skyscrapers what it is: A bubble.
Yet the big question is not whether office tower prices are getting loopy again – they are. Rather, why prices are hitting such crazy levels so soon after the last crash?
The Great Recession was at its peak just six short years ago, with trophy towers and suburban complexes still getting foreclosed upon just a bare three or four years ago.
by Scott Van Voorhis | Aug 17, 2015
We like to think we are so amazing here in Massachusetts, especially in Greater Boston – the envy of the nation, if not the world.
To any doubters, we can simply point to development boom that is seeing new tower and research palaces take shape from downtown Boston
by Scott Van Voorhis | Aug 10, 2015
You would be forgiven for imagining smoke-belching “polluters” heartlessly discharging dirty water into the Charles River after reading the Conservation Law Foundation’s announcement of its latest legal crusade.
by Scott Van Voorhis | Aug 3, 2015
It was all blue skies this spring when Springfield’s leaders and top MGM executives gathered at a festive ground breaking ceremony for the Las Vegas giant’s planned $800 gambling palace. But storm clouds are starting to move in on Springfield’s big bet that casino gambling can revive its
by Scott Van Voorhis | Jul 27, 2015
Disliked by developers and neighborhood activists alike, the Boston Redevelopment Authority just spent untold thousands of dollars on a study on how to reform itself.
Predictably, high-powered consulting firm McKinsey & Co. came back with all sorts of options, but left the one that may actually
by Scott Van Voorhis | Jul 20, 2015
Despite all the hype about record home prices and bidding wars, all is not well with the real estate market in Massachusetts. A large number of pending sales of homes and condominiums are falling through, with buyers in some cases getting cold feet after being...
by Scott Van Voorhis | Jul 13, 2015
Steve Wynn’s vision of a $1.7 billion gambling palace soaring above the banks of the Mystic River has bogged down in a toxic feud with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, and we can no longer shrug the whole spat off as yet another colorful example of our head-bashing style of...
by Scott Van Voorhis | Jul 6, 2015
I’m not sure what they’re smoking over there at the Boston 2024 headquarters, but it must be some really good stuff. The supposedly new and improved proposal unveiled this week by Olympic boosters calls for the construction of not just one new Hub neighborhood, but...
by Scott Van Voorhis | Jun 29, 2015
Boston’s disjointed approach to vetting new towers and other major projects, the bane of generations of developers, is finally poised for a long-needed reboot.
by Scott Van Voorhis | Jun 22, 2015
Who says bipartisanship is dead? Just take a look at the opposition to badly needed new housing here in the Bay State, where steaming heaps of hypocrisy can be found fouling both sides of the political aisle.
by Scott Van Voorhis | Jun 22, 2015
Who says bipartisanship is dead? Just take a look at the opposition to badly needed new housing here in the Bay State, where steaming heaps of hypocrisy can be found fouling both sides of the political aisle.
by Scott Van Voorhis | Jun 15, 2015
Upscale Harvard has emerged as a one-town wrecking crew when it comes to economic development in the Bay State.
Voters in NIMBY Harvard shot down a proposal last week aimed at luring a major biotech company to Devens, the long-time military base that, since its decommissioning in the 1990s, has been transformed in a major hub for new business and development.
by Scott Van Voorhis | Jun 8, 2015
Contrary to conventional wisdom, Boston’s floundering Olympic bid is suffering from too much spin doctoring, not too little.
The bigwigs running Boston’s bid are bemoaning their bad press, yet their bid reads more like a pie-in-the-sky public relation brochure, not a serious proposal. A case in point is the decision to use 2016 dollars to estimates the cost of Olympic construction work that is easily a half decade or more out. With construction prices on a tear, Boston 2024’s estimate of $2.18 billion to build everything from a new stadium to thousands of new Olympic Village could be significantly off.
by Scott Van Voorhis | Jun 1, 2015
Watch out, all you fat and happy Boston and Cambridge developers; the suburban office market is on the comeback trail.
Waltham has surpassed Cambridge in the total size of its office market amid a surge of new construction over the past few years, with Burlington, Needham, Watertown and Marlborough all seeing significant new development as well, stats from Colliers International show.
