A NEW REPORT from a Washington-based liberal think tank raises concerns about the proliferation of luxury condominiums in Boston and urges policymakers to identify who all the new owners are and impose new taxes on them. The administration of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has largely welcomed the jobs and investment associated with the luxury construction. […]
Housing
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Taxes on short-term rentals could hit 17.5%
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SHORT-TERM HOUSING UNITS rented through websites like Airbnb could be taxed at almost 17.5 percent in cities like Boston and Massachusetts would become the first state in the country to maintain a central registry under compromise legislation agreed to Sunday night by House and Senate negotiators. State officials have been trying […]
Posted inOpinion
The waterfront is for all
WALKING ALONG THE Boston Harbor waterfront today, it is clear that the area has come a long way from the days when the harbor was an open sewer and an elevated highway cut off the water from the rest of the city. For decades, neglected waterfront properties created few jobs, paid little in taxes, and […]
Posted inOpinion
Senate gives special treatment to Airbnb
REAL ESTATE INVESTORS are increasingly reshaping local residential neighborhoods by acquiring homes and apartments and converting them into full-time tourist lodging as “short-term rentals.” What began about a decade ago with a few homeowners offering an occasional room for rent is now a hot investment trend—producing record earnings for absentee owners, but also threatening housing […]
Posted inOpinion
How to solve homelessness
TONIGHT, 6,300 MEN and women across the Commonwealth will sleep on the streets or in shelter. Although that statistic may be disheartening, this does not have to be the case. Homeless services providers across the state do not lack for solutions to end homelessness – we lack the necessary resources. Additional funding would allow providers […]
Posted inEconomy
City council puts restraints on Airbnb
THE BOSTON CITY COUNCIL overwhelmingly approved tough new restrictions on short-term rentals offered by companies such as Airbnb and HomeAway, eliminating investor-owned units from the marketplace while allowing owner-occupied, two- and three-family homeowners to rent out some of their units year-round. The council on Wednesday made some minor adjustments to a proposal by Mayor Marty […]
Posted inOpinion
For hire: CEO of housing and transit
EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS has a lot going for it. From the outside looking in, we’re thriving in the information economy. We can boast a talented workforce; world-class research and development; productive relations between government, business, and academia; nationally esteemed health care and education services; and access to deep capital markets. Residents, though, see the underside of […]
Posted inEducation
Rivera’s folly comes to an end
Lawrence on Thursday unloaded an empty downtown building and a lot next door, bringing an end to a real estate power play by Mayor Daniel Rivera that ended up backfiring. Rivera engineered the purchase of the building at 370 Essex St. in 2015 as the future home for the city’s school department. At the time, […]
Posted inThe Download
Middle class ‘slowly clawing its way back’
The American Dream has long been predicated on a strong and growing middle class. That’s why there has been so much talk in recent years about the withering of that dream. Growing income inequality and stagnant wages among all but those at the top have made the goal of a stable middle-class life an elusive […]
Posted inEconomy
Airbnb goes inhospitable
GO ON THE Airbnb website and you feel like you’ve landed in a cool world with interesting people who could become your friends. “Book unique homes and experiences all over the world,” is the message greeting visitors to the company’s homepage. The message to those who would stand in the path of the multibillion-dollar home-sharing […]