Five Real Estate Turkeys for 2025
It’s that time of year again, when we recognize the dumb ideas, political cowardice and dodo development plans that add a little extra spice to life in Massachusetts.
Voters Face a Choice: Build Our Future, or Blow It Up?
Voters are boiling over with frustration as costs escalate in almost every segment of their lives. Will they go for rent control, or new construction as the solution to housing costs?
What Comes Next After MBTA Communities?
We all agree Massachusetts needs more housing. To get there, do we need a shinier, more tempting carrot, a bigger stick or something in between?
Why Is America a Nation of ‘No’?
America has become NIMBY Nation, and Massachusetts, where even plans for a two-bit apartment building will draw warnings of environmental doom, is its spiritual heartland.
It’s Round Two in the Boston Real Estate Tax Battle
The latest idea from a city pol to head off spending cuts: pile more taxes on the backs of apartment owners. But even a mayoral ally worries it’s a bad idea.
Debate Over Healey Housing Numbers Misses the Mark
Instead of arguing over how many homes we’re building, we should measure success by how much we can bring down home-sale prices and rents.
Court Case Could Help End Shady Tax Foreclosure Practices
For years, cities and towns across the nation seized homes and properties for back taxes and then sold them off for hundreds of thousands of dollars, pocketing the gains.
The Home-Price Crisis Came for Western Mass., and It Isn’t Leaving
A steady stream of remote workers fled Boston for rural New England during the pandemic. It’s helped the Pioneer Valley become one of the nation’s hottest housing markets.
Healey’s Housing Production Stats Don’t Always Add Up
Gov. Maura Healey claims we’re already almost halfway to hitting our 2035 housing goal. Is it real progress, or just happy talk from a governor facing reelection?
Who’s Worried? Not Tom O’Brien
The HYM Investment Group chief faces down a tough financing environment and a threat from a prominent politician to force an eminent domain sale of the Suffolk Downs development site.
Mass. Should Build New Cities, Too
Boston, Worcester and Springfield may be the Bay State’s three largest cities, but if Congressman Jake Aucincloss has his way, they may get competition.
Kraft Deserves Praise for a Serious Campaign
Say what you want about Josh Kraft – and there’s certainly a lot to say. But he pushed Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on issues where the city’s failing.
Green Groups, Major Source of Jobs Square Off in Westfield
Massachusetts is at a high risk of recession and may already be in the early stages of a contraction. Is this really the time for green virtue-signaling?
Don’t Bet on Filling Those Lab Buildings Any Time Soon
The Bay State’s life sciences sector now faces the prospect of a potential retrenchment amid slashing cuts to research funding and drops in venture capital funding.
State’s Top Taxman Dismisses Tower Tax Retaliation Claims
State Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said he can’t “substantiate” claims that Boston raised taxes on tower owners who challenged their valuations. A lawsuit could be next.
The Next Step in Housing Reform Isn’t Coming from the Governor
The next big thing in housing affordability isn’t coming from Gov. Maura Healey or a leading legislator. Instead, a housing scholar is taking matters into his own hands.
Who’s Got an ‘Abundance’ Agenda in Massachusetts?
Some top Democrats on Beacon Hill say they’re big fans of the book roiling the party’s intellectual circles with its critique of why blue states build too little housing.
Let the Celtics Arena Games Begin!
Buried at the bottom of an otherwise routine column, a Celtics beat writer dropped a potential bombshell: The team’s new owner is looking to build a new home for Boston basketball.
How Boston Missed Its Biggest Chance to Rein in Rents
British developer Scape entered the Boston market with dreams of “solving” Boston’s housing crisis with 2,000 units of student housing. Now they’re dust in the wind.
Three Big Ideas for Fixing Boston’s Housing Production Problem
The decline in housing production in Boston, a city already beset with some of the nation’s highest prices and rents, has gone from bad to worse to simply catastrophic.
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