Each year, columnist Scott Van Voorhis names his picks for the worst ideas and biggest real estate backfires of the 12 months gone by. iStock illustration
Welcome to the 2026 Turkey Awards!
Yes, it’s that time of year again, when we recognize the dumb ideas, shameless hypocrisy, political cowardice and dodo development plans that add a little extra spice to life.
Without any exaggeration, I can confidently say we have some real gobblers this year: a state ballot initiative that would burn down the housing market to save it, a half-baked mortgage proposal cooked up in Washington that would have homeowners still making payments in their 90s and more.
Without further ado, here are this year’s winners.
Rent Control Madness
Talk about an idea that would make the housing crisis 10 times worse.
Backed by the state’s powerful teachers and service workers unions, Homes for All Massachusetts is pushing a ballot initiative to cap rent increases across the state at the rate of inflation up to 5 percent.
The group claimed last month it has collected more than enough signatures to get on the 2026 ballot.
New apartment construction has lagged for decades in Massachusetts and is poised to plummet over the next few years amid tight financing and high construction costs.
Now just imagine what would happen if rent control, a known killer when it comes to new apartment projects, were to be thrown into the mix.
The 50-Year Mortgage
President Donald Trump floated this one on his Truth Social account in early November after reportedly being talked into the idea by Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency according to Politico.
Let’s get real. The only way to bring housing costs down is to build more homes, apartments and condominiums.
We are not going to deport our way to affordability, and adding a 50-year mortgage will simply make it easier to buy at today’s already sky-high prices without building more homes. And what happens when you add more demand without increasing supply? Prices go up, sometimes way up.
Gimmicks like this one, which would have some homeowners still making payments into their 90s, is not the way to bring down prices and rents. Trump, a former real estate man, should know that.
John Rosenthal
Would-be Fenway megadeveloper John Rosenthal has been swinging – and missing– for 30 years.
Since the mid-1990s, the anti-gun violence activist with no experience in major development projects has been pitching plans to build a tower complex of one sort or another on a deck over the Turnpike by Fenway Park.
The $200 million deck over the Turnpike has finally been built, but we could be waiting quite a while before anything else happens there.
Lab development giant IQHQ, the main driver now on the deal for which Rosenthal is now the local partner, told the Boston Globe last week what’s been obvious for a while: It can’t move forward because of the glut of life science space on the market.
On to the next half-baked plan?
Several years and $200 million later, developer John Rosenthal and real estate investment trust IQHQ now have an empty deck over the Massachusetts Turnpike next to Fenway Park, following the local lab market’s collapse. iStock photo
MBTA Communities
The Massachusetts Legislature dragged its feet for decades on zoning reform before finally passing the modest – and highly imperfect – MBTA Communities law in 2021.
It now increasingly looks like it was too little, too late as suburban officials exploit loopholes, residential construction falls from already anemic levels and home prices and rents soar.
In an initial burst of optimism that accompanied the passage of the zoning reform law nearly five years ago, former Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration estimated it could generate 200,000 units or more.
But local officials have found ways to comply with the law while limiting or effectively blocking new apartments and condos, placing required multifamily districts in already built-out areas, among other things.
Earlier this year, Boston Indicators chief Luc Schuster estimated that MBTA Communities will result in only around 40,000 new housing units over a decade, per CommonWealth Beacon.
Scott Van Voorhis
No Green Energy for You!
An unholy alliance nearly derailed the plan to funnel carbon-free Quebec hydro power to Massachusetts
Environmental activists and fossil fuel interests teamed up to oppose the new hydro power transmission line from Quebec across Maine to the Massachusetts grid.
This Canadian electricity is essential if we’re going to follow through on those same activists’ demands the state convert everything from cars to hospital heating systems to electric power in the name of fighting climate change.
The opposition delayed the project by years and added hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost, which will be picked up by Massachusetts ratepayers at a time when the cost of living is already incredibly high.
The power is supposed to start flowing later this year, but keep your fingers crossed.
So that’s it for the 2026 Turkey Awards. One of the benefits of living in Massachusetts is that there is no lack of things to poke fun at. Just wait until next year.
Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist and publisher of the Contrarian Boston newsletter; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.
