Opinion
There’s 2M SF of Offices Waiting to Be Converted to Housing, But They Need Help
Greater Boston’s high construction and capital costs have made most conversions prohibitively expensive. A solution needs state, municipalities and industry to collaborate.
To Hit Our Housing Goal, We Need to Add New Tools
Massachusetts is an incredible place to live. But the high costs of housing are making it harder to live here. Three bills before the Legislature would help.
Amid Headwinds, College and Lab Projects Move Forward
These three projects are bright spots offering valuable lessons. All three required years of work and complex transactions. All are entering construction during unprecedented uncertainty.
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.
What Agents and Brokers Should Know About a Buyer’s Right to a Home Inspection
Under a new law, sellers or their agents are prohibited from selling a home on the condition that a buyer waives an inspection.
Cities Who Fight the Housing Market Lose Talented Workers
There’s at least one way that policy gooses local housing demand with no economic benefit: requiring city staff to live in the city they work for.
Equity Contracts Aren’t So Hot
There comes a time in practically every homeowner’s life when they consider using the equity they’ve built up in their house for one purpose or another.
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.
Massachusetts’ Growing Ranks of Older Homeless Straining the Safety Net
Here in one of the wealthiest states in the wealthiest nation on Earth, a quiet crisis is unfolding as more and more older adults are losing their homes.
The Fair Share Amendment Will Help Mass. Keep I-90 Project on Track
This is a real setback for this once-in-a-generation opportunity. But it’s far from the final chapter – and we still have hundreds of millions of dollars to work with.
The Property Insurance Conundrum
Recent storms highlight just how few Americans go without homeowners’ insurance – 1 in 7 – and how nearly everyone does without flood insurance.
A ‘Business as Usual’ Attitude is Holding Massachusetts Back
While Massachusetts prepares to debate a small fraction of proposed housing reforms, states across the country are already implementing many of those same ideas.
Policy, Plus Action, Equals More Housing, More Quickly
At CHAPA’s new Housing Policy Action Center, we want to help support ideas through implementation, and make sure reforms are backed with on-the-ground experience and solid coalitions.
40-Year Listing Firm Run Out of Business
Remember the company that was offering homeowners a few thousand dollars in exchange for the right to list their homes any time in the next 40 years?
No Crying in Mass. About This Part of Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’
As things stand now, some of the wealthiest homeowners in the most expensive Boston suburbs are in line for a big fat tax break.
Massachusetts’ Clean Energy Plans Face a Reckoning
The wheels are coming off our current plans to transition to a clean energy future. It’s time for a debate on how we balance the speed of transition with making Massachusetts affordable.
With Ordinance, Boston Targets Climate Change
For a planet with over 8 billion people, BERDO cannot provide meaningful climate change mitigation by itself, but one has to start somewhere.
Why So Many Luxury Rentals? It’s Boston’s High-Cost Environment
Our region’s sustained demand is fueled by affluent renters, a reasonably robust economy and limited inventory, with even fewer new developments on the horizon.
Let’s Give Assisted Living Legal Clarity in Massachusetts
It’s vital Massachusetts builds more assisted living residences to help aging Bay Staters, but the legal framework around them has become ambiguous – and that’s hurting development.
Wellesley Project Was Reinvented to Gain Support
Plans for a 90-unit 40B complex gave way to a 35-unit condominium development after developers’ discussions with neighbors and town officials.
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