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Boston Globe
17-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
The 36 Top Spots to Live in Greater Boston in 2025
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The confounding circumstances of the past few years — notable even in a market that's been mind-boggling for far longer — started when the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in early 2022 in response to surging inflation. Mortgage rates that had lingered below 4 percent for the better part of three years soon started climbing, peaking at 7.8 percent in late 2023. Suddenly, a $2,400 monthly mortgage payment on a $500,000 loan turned into a $3,600 one. Advertisement And that's not all. Those who dared venture into the Massachusetts market have run headlong into the frustrating fact that there just haven't been that many houses for sale, especially in the mid-price range. Lately, the inventory shortage has been even worse than usual: Continued high interest rates make many potential sellers reluctant to give up the low rates they locked down in 2020, says Cassidy Norton, associate publisher with Peabody-based real estate data firm Advertisement 'That shifts people's buying power,' Norton says. 'There's always been kind of an inventory crunch in Massachusetts. Sometimes it's worse than other times, and this is one of those times.' Overall, the housing shortage — the state needs to add at least 222,000 units by 2035, Governor Maura Healey estimates — is a stubborn problem. In February, the Healey administration released a comprehensive plan for addressing this gap through a variety of measures aimed at increasing housing supply, rehabilitating and repairing existing substandard housing stock, and providing financial support to struggling households. The ambitious plan's 10-year implementation, however, means it won't meaningfully change housing prices or availability in the coming months. Thankfully, there may be some relief ahead. Interest rates, still well above the lows of four years ago, have started to temper, remaining under 7 percent for most of 2024 — that's at least a glimmer of good news, though it's impossible to tell if it will last. And sales volume is starting to inch its way back: In 2024, single-family home sales increased 4 percent in Massachusetts, as compared with the previous year. (That's a bigger turnaround than it might seem: In 2023, the number of sales had plummeted 21 percent compared with 2022.) Prices aren't sinking, but they may be starting to stabilize. Homes priced at the high end of their estimated property values are spending more time on the market and seeing their asking prices reduced more often, Gustafson says. More aggressively priced homes, however, are still receiving multiple offers and getting snapped up quickly. Advertisement Slowly expanding inventory may help. In January, the number of listings in the state was up 7.1 percent over the previous year, according to research from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. And in Gustafson's Of course, there are wide variations between the dynamics in different regions, towns, and even neighborhoods. There are 'nuances to all our markets, because all real estate is local,' Gustafson says. And that's where the 2025 edition of Top Spots to Live comes in, providing a primer on the housing options, perks, and community character of 36 of the state's most in-demand housing destinations, from the cultural vibrancy of Lawrence to the seaside charms of Marion. Explore the Top Spots to Live by region: Methodology: To arrive at this annual list, we relied on the finite — but meaningful — wisdom of supply and demand: Significantly increasing prices in these communities are a signal that many buyers are eager to call them home. We analyzed median home prices from 2019 and 2024 to find the biggest five-year increases across three price tiers for each region. In the Boston suburbs, we looked at single-family data from The Warren Group, excluding communities with fewer than 50 sales in 2024. For Boston and Cambridge neighborhoods, we used median home price data — including both single-family and condo sales — from Advertisement Sarah Shemkus is a frequent contributor to the Globe Magazine. Additional research by Jon Gorey. Send comments to magazine@
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Fight for aid for crumbling foundations marches on
BOSTON (WWLP) – It's an issue that devastates communities across western and central Massachusetts–crumbling foundations. Advocates gathered at the State House once again to ask lawmakers for their help. Crumbling concrete is caused by a mineral called pyrrhotite, and it puts homes at risk of collapse. Affected homeowners lose their home equity, stability, and hundreds of thousands of dollars with no legal recourse or financial assistance from the state. Monson resident Michelle Loglisci has been fighting for the Bay State to take action for almost a decade, since she discovered her own home was damaged. 'This is a much larger issue than just the individual homeowner. It's a community issue for sure,' said Loglisci. Some homeowners spoke to the emotional component of learning that your home has no value, especially knowing that taxpayers across their towns will need to pick up the tab for their crumbling concrete. 'Like oh my god I fell for a fraud and I got duped. So you almost have this embarrassment to you,' said affected Charlton homeowner Keith Cloutier. As of now, quarries could still be pouring flawed foundations that will crumble over the next few decades. These advocates are also pushing for regulation to mandate concrete testing before this happens to anyone else. 'This isn't going away! This is a natural disaster that's going to last for the next 30+ years,' said Nick Pelletier, a member of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and an advocate for the cause. Some Connecticut homeowners are also facing this issue, but their state has set up a program to help them replace their damaged foundations. Crumbling foundations legislation has made it through the senate twice, but has never crossed the finish line into law. Western Massachusetts lawmakers say they have high hopes that they will be able to pass a law to help their neighbors this session. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
