GBH News reports on efforts by councilors in the three cities, including Boston's Enrique Pepén (Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale) to lift Massachusetts's current standing as the only state where tenants have to pay fees to apartment brokers who work for landlords.
The rental supply glut in Downtown Boston has received quite a bit of attention in the past 12 months. The pandemic caused a shift in demand for housing in Boston, and many Downtown neighborhoods went from being the hardest areas to find an apartment to the easiest seemingly overnight.
Over the past month, most of Greater Boston’s largest Universities have made announcements that they plan to significantly scale down remote learning for the Fall 2021 semester. The much anticipated news was greeted with a collective sigh of relief from thousands of Boston professors and college students, most of whom have been struggling with remote learning. The announcements also bodes well for the off-campus housing market in Boston and the thousands of businesses that rely on the student population for business.
East Boston’s apartment rental market has undergone quite a transformation even before 2020 and the market turbulence that came with it. Over the previous 10 years, rising rent prices in neighborhoods close to Downtown were quickly gentrifying East Boston, as renters began looking outward for relief in rent prices. Just a year ago, East Boston was experiencing record low vacancy rates thanks to a steadily growing metro population and a shortage of affordable housing in Boston.
The apartment rental market in Mission Hill is heavily reliant on the local student population. It’s situated just south of Fenway and Northeastern, providing students quick and easy access to some of Boston’s largest Universities. It’s also considerably less expensive than renting close to these schools and it provides plenty of options for 3 and 4 bedroom apartments so students can save splitting rent.
Boston has noted some dramatic shifts in apartment supply in 2020. The year has been marked by massive increases in vacancies, which has precipitated price drops throughout the 3rd and 4th quarter. While the overall impact has been significant, a closer look at the data shows that there are a few areas that are being hit the hardest, particularly those nearest to the city’s largest universities.
The challenges faced by the Boston housing market have been well documented in 2020. The pandemic has caused massive shifts in urban population distribution in metropolitan areas all across the country, and Boston is no exception. It effectively took one of the nation’s hottest real estate markets and caused it to come to a grinding halt as apartment vacancies soar all over the city.
With New York State banning real-estate brokers from charging fees to renters, Mayor Marty Walsh said today he's forming a group to look at apartment broker fees in Boston.
In a statement, Walsh said: Read more.
Cedric Douglas and Greg Cook show us around Roxbury and its public art.
The Boston Business Journal reports rents in Boston's tonier sections are falling as new luxo-apartments come onto the market.
It's a happy ending for the Hayden building, located on Washington Street, on the edge of Chinatown and Downtown Crossing.
The five-story office building, long run-down and in rough shape, has been renovated as four apartments, with retail at street level. Most-recently, the first floor was a bank. In the 1970s, it was an X-rated "peep show" cinema and gay bathhouse.
During its 135-plus year life, the building has been home to "tailors, jewelers, engravers, printers; a dental parlor advertising $6 false teeth and innovative cocaine-free dentistry “without the least particle of pain or danger’’; a uniform company and an employment service; a record shop; an Army-Navy store," according to the Boston Globe.
A re-dedication of the renovated building, built circa 1875 by H.H. Richardson (of Trinity Church fame), was held yesterday. According to the Boston Herald, the developer faces a unique challenge:
I've witnessed people being Massholes while they drive, ride the T, watch (talk through) a movie to name a few scenarios. Tonight however, I'm faced with an entirely new experience that rivals the others.
The 10pm Apartment Move-In
I've often asked myself "Is there anything so mundane that it cannot be Massholified?" Apparently not, as moving into one's apartment now takes its place high on my list of things slathered with a thick, putrid layer of Massholery.
The boy and I have started the search for our next apartment (or rental house, or um...large cardboard box, perhaps). It's more than a little intimidating. We've been in Boston for almost 2 years now, so I could go to school, and he could work :) We found the place we're living in now through a broker, and although the Fens have their charm, let's just say we're looking for something a little less...people throwing up and shrieking below our windows at two in the morning, if you know what I mean. We're not looking for anything fancy, really. 1 bedroom plus an office, or a wee second room. Cat friendly.
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