Hey, there! Log in / Register
Mapping displacement in Boston
By adamg on Thu, 03/24/2016 - 8:13am
Boston Displacement is a site that's started showing where tenants are being displaced by gentrification - specifically by landlords seeking to clear out units.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Somewhat useless demarcation
The website uses odd arbitrary boundaries (Zip+4? or Cole's) that do not make sense in regards to the data output for the desired purpose. 25 years ago I was a rental agent in HP/Westie/Dedham and I am pretty comfortable that I know the nuances of the areas. There is no reason that Billings field neighborhood data block should be the absolute polar opposite of the Catholic Memorial neighborhood data block. If it is the VFW Riverview apartment towers skewing the data (they would not have 25 years ago), the whole entire map should reflect such anomalies.
When a Latino absentee
When a Latino absentee homeowner from East Boston is bombarded with letters from wealthy real estate investors from Brookline and Newton and Natick , these letters state if homeowner would like to sell home , absentee landlord accepts offer from Brookline wealthy investor, so home is bought and tenants remain for a year or two until market is strong enough for the Brookline real estate investor to make himself huge profits!
So, Brookline real estate investor raises the rents forcing tenants out onto the street. If you look at most of the real estate transactions primarily multi family homes are mostly bought by investors who live in affluent towns. And the triple decker so are converted into luxurious apartments , obviously the rents will raise , and this is a domino affect throughout
How would you feel if you had lived in the same apartment for 15 years were your kids grew up and went to local schools and have made friends throughout the years. Only to be forced out by millionaires who offer landlords substantial amounts of money for there properties, wrong at all levels, I blame the media outlets Boston Globe, Chronicle, and the local real estate blogs for promoting poor neighborhoods like Eastie as the next gentrified next expensive unaffordable neighborhood.
I would feel grateful that I was paying cheap rent for 15 years.
And don't forget about the Latino owner who made some good money off those filthy Brookline people right? If you are able to raise the rent, it means you are paying under market rate, and if you saved and invested that money, you would be making out as well.
Did you see the article on Sunday about Mr. Burke, a man from Southie who took advantage of that poor Brookline landowner? (some sarcasm in this post, sorry)
So, it's all the "millionaire's" fault?
And er...Chronicle? And the Globe? No wrath saved for the "Latino absentee" landlord (or Southie grandma or Sicilian North End-tenement owner) who actually sold the building and is now probably a millionaire? Sorry, but this is pretty ridiculous. East
Boston is a luxury condo shitshow, I agree, but it's been a long time coming. The tenants get the short end of the stick, no doubt, but no one is forcing anyone to sell their building.
A lot of people I know in Boston can't afford to live in the neighborhood they grew up in. Then again, a lot of the places that were half boarded up houses and vacant lots are now full of new and revitalized housing and young families. Those places are safer and cleaner than they were 30 years ago...but less affordable. It's hard to find a balance in the middle.
This is why East Boston
This is why East Boston voters have to vote for someone who's liberal enough for the senate seat, I like what Dan Rizzos has done to Revere with the housing issue, he seems like the most qualified candidate.
Liberal enough??? Are you
Liberal enough??? Are you kidding me? You do realize most of his supporters are also Trump supporters right? I passed by his "rally" last week and saw only a bunch of old gray-haired white guys. He seems like a nice guy but pretty sure liberal isn't what best describes him.
What I like about Revere it's
What I like about Revere it's much more diverse than Eastie, you have Hindus Muslims Somali and most of the low income housing is near Revere beach ( the high rises, with posted rentals available signs. I don't know who was responsible for having rent control along that beach and the entire Revere area they're doing much of a better job than Parts of Boston.
Although Trump has a knucklehead support group.
He really isn't the most right winged you can get for a Republican. Many Trump supporters are on food stamps, get government assistance, and enjoy liberal government programs.
They just don't like Mexicans.
Gray haired white guys?!?!?!
Oh, the horror!
Guess What Is Missing?
These stories don't tell you what many of the tenants are paying for rent, just what their rent increases are or will be. They won't publish some rents because the advocates here do not want to let you know how cheaply, relative to your rent, that other people are paying to live in some decent and quasi-decent areas of the city.
If you want price controls on housing, then there needs to be price controls on gas, food, Red Sox tickets, Uber rides, clothing, wages, et al. We can call it Habana-On-The-Charles.
Then we can be just like the um, nice places that many of these people moved / fled from to live their lives in here in Boston.
Hingham
at least we know that this is a problem in Hingham as well based on the map data, right?
My first thought looking at
My first thought looking at that map is that it fails to note section 8 vouchers allowing a very sizable number of people to "rent" in areas otherwise well above their income level.
Methodology
Spot on. The methodology for the data collection is important to gain a true understanding on what the map is showing us. I haven't kept up with the policies of Georgetown in Westie and never was involved with rentals there but a few times I sat in with mortgage originators in the early 90s for house hunting clients and I seem to recall the rent charged was 30 percent of the renters income by policy... the rest was federally subsidized, I believe. Georgetown is rather large and no matter which side of the 30 percent bar the data would contribute to, it would be a fatal disservice to having a meaningful color coded map to include the area without an asterisk or at the very least its own isolated region. Section 8 is a much more widespread and a portable factor that does have more than one facet when considering what exactly 30 percent of ones income really means. Section 8 allows the renter to cover what Section 8 will not - as in make up the difference. So not only can the renter enjoy rentals above their income level with the handout alone, they can go further than that and get ridiculous about it by contributing also. The main idea here, of course, is what data is used to paint the picture. Section 8 helped me flip a house once, so I am not all militant or anything, but damned if I don't feel the need to call out yet another victim group on their fancy numbers when the data appears to suck so bad at the very core.
Eastie
I know that some of those families in the main photograph were paying about $700 a month for their apartment. They have been paying this for a decade. There were many opportunities to Buy in East Boston over the past decade. I know owners that in the 90's bought triple deckers for under 80k. As early as 2009 you could still buy a 2 family for under 200k, condos for just over 110k. There were ample opportunities and signs abound that the market was shifting and thus time for people to buy. Many properties around 2008-2011 were on the market for months before being purchased meaning current residents had opportunities.
Even now I see from real estate listing information that many are still paying $800 per month. Imagine $800 while other parts of the city have been above this for close to a decade. This didn't just come out of nowhere overnight. Charlestown, South Boston, ....... There were opportunities.
Great!
If you have $30,000 for a down payment and a DeLorian I'd love to hear more! People live here because they can't afford to live anywhere else. Blaming them for their poverty and inability to somehow save a home down payment while earning $20,000/year does nothing to help them or inform others of their situation. Eastie is one of the last Boston neighborhoods where those who are poor can afford to live and access the subway easily - once they are priced out, where will they go? Boston development should support its residents not force them out.l
Owners that decide to sell
Owners that decide to sell will choose to set the price for as high as they can. When this happens THE carrying costs double or triple. You realize this. Eastie was never cheap on purpose its because it somehow got an awful image as being a place people should avoid except when traveling to airport . The houses were left to rot, they were allowing people to overpopulate homes, use curtains as dividers in bedrooms, mattresses in unfinished basements . The schools were doing awful except for maybe 2. Fas forward and things are starting to.look cleaner.more are taking an interest in schools and neighborhood (there were always advocates in this neighborhood but it seems the last two decades or so too many moved out) organizing cleanups etc. I helped organize such a cleanup this morning.
Private owners do not work for the city and they are not elected by the people to create or maintain afforrable housing. Like it or not an investment property to me is like your 401k or stocks to you, an investment for both you and your children/family.
Sounds like
The data is based on a survey from 2011-2014. Not sure how scientific it is when it depends on who responds.
One inevitable and frightening conclusion.
Several years and a few BMW's down the road and we'll have an original E-BO Yuppie commenting on UHub.
Does the 30% rule even apply
Does the 30% rule even apply to Boston? Boston has relatively high incomes, and if you can get by without owning a car, then you can afford to spend a lot more on housing.
The lack of a car can help,
The lack of a car can help, but after the initial purchase that's really only a few thousand a year [outside of breakdowns], if you can find street parking.
If it was just the people living on Beacon Hill or the Seaport who were paying more than 30% that would be one thing: location. But rents or ownership in Brighton, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, East Boston, and even some of the further out areas than those are so high now that there is no longer a cheap neighborhood alternative. Not until you're on the commuter rail and well outside the city anyhow.
High wages only help a small percentage of the population, with many making well under 100,000 or worse.
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/income/massachusetts/...
and