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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Takes away rights': Mass. realtors upset with new law meant to help first-time homebuyers
Buying a home is a challenging and sometimes risky endeavor. Every buyer is worried about finding expensive problems after all the paperwork has been signed. A new state law goes into effect regarding the use of home inspectors on Friday. Supporters of the measure believe it will help home buyers, particularly those in the market for the first time. Some real estate professionals feel it will put unworkable limits on both buyers and sellers. The new law comes at a time when it has never been more challenging for first-time homebuyers in eastern Massachusetts. The Greater Boston Association of Realtors says the median price for a single-family home in the region is now $988,000. It's a frustrating situation for people like Tina Shukar. She has unsuccessfully been trying to buy her first house for several years now. She has a good career in sales. 'The problem is that I am competing against companies that do home flips, and they use cash to buy properties, and skip inspections and all that.' The new law will make it against the law to condition the sale of property on a waiver of an inspection, said State Senator Will Brownsberger (D-Suffolk/Middlesex). This law is part of the Affordable Homes Act, which was signed by Governor Maura Healey last August. It's one of about 50 housing initiatives in the $5 billion dollar plus law. Brownsberger was part of the Senate conference as the bill went through the legislature. 'The first-time homebuyers, the people we are trying to help in the housing market, are especially disadvantaged by that market dynamic of private equity... Coming into the local real estate market and snapping up properties.' Brownsberger says those types of buyers are better suited to handle the risks of foregoing an inspection. One reason the senate got involved was because of a wide scale problem with concrete in central Massachusetts. 25 Investigates first reported on how concrete was compromised with pyrrhotite and was susceptible to crumbling. 'We recognize that rules can have unintended consequences, so we left the details of this bill to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities to put out some regulations.' 'What happened here isn't right,' said Anthony Lamacchia, the CEO and also a broker, at The Lamacchia Companies. 'It takes away rights from buyers and sellers and it's a real problem.' Lamacchia isn't opposed to home inspections. In fact, he often thinks they're a good idea. But it's the part of the new law that really bothers him. It would prohibit the sale of a property, or 'accepting an offer if the seller has been informed in advance that the prospective buyer intends to waive their right to an inspection.' Lamacchia added, 'It is literally going to prohibit realtors from doing things that they are supposed to do. You are supposed to convey what a buyer is trying to achieve. You are supposed to advocate for the advantages of the seller taking your buyer's offer. Now if a seller hears that or a listing agent hears that, they're not supposed to accept that offer. It doesn't make sense.' Brownsberger believes it will help 'remove some of the advantages that those cash buyers have.' Lamacchia said, 'Listen, this is capitalism, and in capitalism, there are highs and lows in all kinds of ways.' The Housing Office will report out their final regulations, and they will become law, on June 6th. Senator Brownsberger said it's common for the legislature to approve of an outline of their intentions and then have the appropriate agency fill in the specifics. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why is it so hard to find an affordable single-family home in Massachusetts?
A single-family home with a white picket fence has always been a hallmark of the American Dream. Now it's turning into something of a nightmare for some would-be home buyers. Low inventory and sky-high prices have many people wondering if owning that type of home is still in the cards for them. 'I would love to be able to afford a single-family home. Like all millennials, have a nice yard for a dog,' said 37-year-old Tina Shukar who's been looking for a home in the greater Norwood area. The sales executive is frustrated by the situation she's faced over the last two years. 'The problem is that I'm competing against companies that do home flips, and they have cash to buy properties, and can skip inspections, and all that stuff.' Although more homebuyers are having trouble finding an affordable single-family house, this problem didn't emerge overnight. 'We're facing an extreme housing shortage in Massachusetts,' explained Jesse Kanson-Benanav, executive director of Abundant Housing Massachusetts, an advocacy group focused on increasing the supply of housing. 'In the 30 years prior to 1990, we built 900,000 homes in Massachusetts,' said Kanson-Benanav. 'In the 35 years or so since 1990, we've actually built about half as many, or 450,000 homes. And that's at a time when our population has been growing steadily, our economy has been growing, and we've added thousands of jobs.' As a result, demand continues to exceed supply, so prices keep going up. The median price of a single-family home in the Boston area was $930,000 in March 2025. That's up from 900,000 a year ago, according to the Greater Boston Association of Realtors., 'No one is doing enough to meet that demand, and it's staring to impact people from all walks of life,' added Kanson-Benanav. One of the big problems, according to Realtor Marie Presti of the Presti Group in Newton and Stoneham, is 'we have very little land available for developers to buy to build big developments.' Developers are left to tear down an old house and then replace it with a bigger house. 'They have to build a big house to make the profit they're looking for,' explained Presti. 'It's out of the first-time homebuyer's price range. Architect Mike Chavez of the Social Impact Collective says overall, houses have been getting much bigger. 'In the 1960s, the average home size was about 1,500 square feet. Now it's about 2,500 square feet . . . and the interesting thing is household size has actually gotten smaller.' In fact, many single-family homes only have one or two Baby Boomers inside. Presti says more people in this demographic were expected to downsize, but they haven't moved. 'They're concerned about a couple of things. Number one, where are they going to go?' Number two is capital gains taxes. Many couples have seen appreciation beyond $500,000 on their house. That means if they sold their house, they would owe the government money. 'They'd rather just stay put so they don't have to pay those taxes,' said Presti. The Healey administration recently released a report indicating the state needs 222,000 units of new housing in the next ten years. Kanson-Benanav believes a mix of housing will be needed and that new approaches will be needed to meet that aggressive goal. He said single-family homes will always be part of that mix but 'what we're saying is that we need different tools. . .and one strategy to address that is to say perhaps you can build 2, 3, or 4 homes on a lot that previously was only allowed to have a single-family house on it.' Changes like that take time and often face stiff opposition. In the meantime, Shuker is losing her optimism that owning a single-family home will ever be in her future. 'It seems like something that I could have easily afforded just a few years ago. I can't anymore.' Presti says more of her clients are willing to accept longer commutes to get the type of home they want. She says it's also helpful if a buyer is flexible about their 'must-haves' and doesn't shy away from a property that needs some work. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Boston Globe
15-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
‘It seems like no matter what happens, prices go up.' Why is Boston's spring housing market at a standstill?
Advertisement All of that together has brought them to an uncomfortable realization. 'Unless it magically gets way cheaper, we can't really afford to buy here,' said Boylan, who is 30. 'Which feels completely insane given the fact that we objectively make more than a lot of people.' Such is the reality of Greater Boston's housing market, which has become so stratified in recent years that even people who may otherwise be considered wealthy can barely afford to buy here anymore. Spring is typically a busy time for homebuying. Sellers put their homes on the market as the ground thaws and trees begin to bud, and buyers tour open houses and make offers. Not in Greater Boston. Instead, the combination of sky-high prices and elevated interest rates are extending a three-year-long housing market malaise during which sellers simply haven't been putting their homes up for sale. Consider: Just 750 single-family homes across Greater Boston were listed for sale in February, according to the Greater Boston Association of Realtors, down 13 percent from last year and 34 percent from February 2020. And now? Deep uncertainty about the state of the economy and stock markets is sidelining even more would-be buyers and sellers alike. Advertisement Add it all up, and it feels like the gears of the housing market, which have already been turning slowly since interest rates rose in early 2022, have ground to a halt. And that has people like Boylan — and many, many people who are not well-paid tech workers — stuck in limbo. Graham Boylan in his home office in Cambridge. Despite earning a six-figure salary as an engineer, Boylan plans to leave the area after failing to find an affordable home to buy. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Of course, housing costs have been high in Greater Boston for decades. That's nothing new. But a wave of population growth in the 2010s, followed by a surge in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, sent prices soaring, putting the region among the most expensive in the country. Between 2015 and 2024, home values in the region grew by nearly 50 percent, according to For most of that time, interest rates were historically low (the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dipped below 3 percent in the second half of 2020 and most of 2021); that kept buying within reach for many, at least relative to paying the region's steep rents, because it meant monthly house payments stayed relatively low. No longer. And it's not difficult to see why. In February 2021, when the median home price in Greater Boston was around $650,000, the monthly mortgage payment on that median-priced house was around $2,100, according to Bankrate's mortgage calculator. Four years later, the median-priced house costs $887,000, interest rates have roughly doubled, and that monthly payment has soared to $4,700. Late last week, the rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage soared to 7 percent, according to Mortgage Daily News, driving that payment even higher. Advertisement 'What is staggering about what we're seeing now is that it wasn't by any stretch affordable to buy a home here before [interest rates rose],' said Paul Willen, a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. 'Typically, when you see rates go up like they did, you expect home prices to drop a bit. But it seems like no matter what happens prices go up in Boston.' Why? A seemingly endless shortage of supply, coupled with demand that never seems to fade. People still come in droves to open houses, said Mary Gillach, principal of the Gillach Group at William Raveis in Brookline. There is still intense demand for the homes that do go on the market, especially multimillion-dollar properties in Newton and other well-off western suburbs, because their buyers can afford to buy despite unfavorable economic conditions and probably aren't borrowing much or at all. But for most everyone else, today's housing market is mostly untenable. Melvin Vieira Jr., an agent at the Re/Max Real Estate Group in Jamaica Plain, sees the current state of the market like this: interest rates have sidelined many would-be sellers, because they have a low mortgage rate now and don't want to pay a higher rate on their next house. That means there's little supply going on the market and because prices are so high and demand so intense, many buyers are sidelined, too. Buying can be manageable here when you're putting up a big down payment and keeping monthly costs low, said Vieira Jr. But the combination of both high down payments and high monthly costs push buying out of reach for most people. Advertisement And now, Vieira Jr. said, he has clients who were finally ready to stomach both after three years of waiting for interest rates to fall, but are now pulling back because of volatility in the economy. Buying a home is a huge investment, said Gillach, in many cases the biggest someone will ever make. It is not difficult to understand, she said, why wild swings in the markets caused by a trade war that may drive up the cost of living would give people pause. With so much in flux — like 401ks and long-term investments — buying a home can go from something that feels like a safe investment to a huge risk. Real estate agent Rosanne Coric walks through the master bedroom of a home in Newton during a recent open house. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff 'I was here for 9/11, and while that was a national tragedy, it had a similar effect, where nobody wanted to make such a major decision because they didn't know what was going to happen in their lives,' said Gillach. 'It's this massive uncertainty that naturally leads to 'I don't know if I want to commit to that house.'' The most vexing part of the housing market's current logjam is that there is no immediate path out of it, said Viera Jr., no indication that interest rates will fall and no sign of prices in Greater Boston going anywhere but up. Now the cost of many building materials is expected to increase, which may push prices even higher. Advertisement 'We are looking for a little glimmer of hope, or for the door to be cracked open just a little bit,' said Viera. 'Usually you can find that somewhere with prices or rates. But honestly, the door is not cracked at all right now.' Andrew Brinker can be reached at
