SCOOP: @mbta.com In Negotiations to Acquire Former Beer Warehouse In Medford for A New Electric Bus Garage - mass.streetsblog.org/2025/08/13/m...

President Donald Trump's tariffs could have one winner in Boston: landlords of existing apartment buildings. Asking rents were already set to increase thanks to Greater Boston’s highly restricted supply of apartments.

This is what could rise on the site of Gillette's soon-to-be-former factory site in South Boston

Is Boston walking back its tough affordability rules? Developers are getting an increasingly sympathetic hearing from Boston officials in an effort to break the logjam of housing projects still sitting on the drawing boards.

Substantially vacant office towers like Boston's One Lincoln face a daunting future: Sitting around gathering dust for years until the office sector grows again. What if it didn't have to be that way -- and they could provide a housing fix, too?

And I've got a long-read today on the intersection between MA coastal communities, seasonal housing, and the dual climate-housing crises.

🚨 O’BRIEN OUT: Developer Tom O’Brien has reversed course and says he is NOT running for mayor of Boston

Watertown leaders hit pause last week on new building emissions regulations after objections from the business community and condominium associations about the potential costs and complications.

These shifts in consumer sentiment are a housing market variable we haven’t had in 15 years. It may no longer be just about rates.

🚨Boston's One Lincoln office tower just sold for only $400 million🚨 "Only," because previous owner Fortis Property Group bought the tower in 2006 for a cool $889 million.

Could we, in fact, get lower mortgage rates this year? That would help more developers build housing and help more homebuyers afford homes.

Lenders postponed an auction of Boston’s One Lincoln office tower at the last minute, delaying a potential change of ownership for the 1.1 million-square-foot skyscraper.

Lexington just went from the poster child for the MBTA Communities law's potential to making deep cuts to its multifamily zoning in the face of a development boom.

Office-to-dorm conversions could become more common in downtown Boston, Mayor @wutrain.bsky.social hopes, potentially taking pressure off residential neighborhoods elsewhere in Boston.

The megadeveloper behind Assembly Row appears to be pivoting to housing as it picks which part of the project to build next.

The Massachusetts Fair Housing Center specializes in representing families who face discrimination from landlords due to the state's costly lead paint abatement law. It could lose nearly half of its annual budget.

While the experts we talked to don't expect “floodgates open,” it’s likely the market will see more towers come up for sale in the next year or two. The big challenge: There aren't a lot of tenants looking for big spaces who can quickly stabilize a troubled office tower.

The stock market slide could be pushing the Massachusetts housing market in two separate directions.

What matters more to deciding how tall a 420-unit housing tower should be: Skyscrapers two blocks to the west or former tenements two blocks to the east?

The Boston Society for Architecture’s annual design honors have been awarded, and the winners range from a Weston farmstand to a hefty, new steam plant in Allston.

Developers will receive an somewhat easier path to approval of multifamily housing in Boston's Bulfinch Triangle under new zoning rules.

Tariffs' potential impact on housing construction could go way beyond construction costs, the top Mass. housing official is warning. “The equity that’s often needed to facilitate a deal doesn’t like uncertainty, and we are in the midst of lots of uncertainty,” Housing Secretary Ed Augustus said.

A joint venture of WinnCompanies and the Boston Housing Authority completed financing to begin a massive, mixed-income redevelopment of Boston’s Mary Ellen McCormack public housing complex.

Despite officials' big talk about housing production, Boston stands in stark contrast with other markets, our columnist Scott Van Voorhis argues.

New England NIMBYism is characterized by an extreme aversion to new homes that might allow working class families with children to move into town, which expresses itself through large minimum lot sizes and a strong preference that ~all new housing be age-restricted for seniors.

Historically in Massachusetts, banks have provided a lot of the grease that keeps the housing production machine -- and the real estate development machine, in general -- rolling along. But after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, a lot of them pulled back from CRE lending.

Attempts to build housing on a section of Braintree’s South Shore Plaza property resumed momentum as a multifamily developer presented the final version of the 325-unit apartment complex. ZOM Living already has zoning changes secured, but is looking for final Planning Board approval.

Housing advocates say Gov. Maura Healey’s proposal to boost it an additional 16 percent in fiscal 2026 only just keeps up with inflation due to increases in sky-high housing prices.

A $1.75 billion deal between a mortgage giant and one of the two biggest online home-listings portals won't have a lot of immediate impact on Massachusetts, a local expert tells us. But it's also a sign of how the home-selling and home-financing process is changing in big ways.

You've probably been reading a lot lately about how "blue America forgot how to build." Here's just one example from Boston.

@wutrain.bsky.social just had the best political week of her life. Still that isn't stopping potential challengers from jumping into the November race. Will Boston developer Tom O'Brien throw his hat in the ring? #bospoli

The Middleton company wants to build a portfolio of land and permitted projects in New England, the Carolinas, Florida and Texas amid demand for around 4.3 million new apartments nationwide by 2035.

A big Mattapan apartment complex that’s been at the heart of controversy around displacement and transit-oriented development in Mattapan will become permanently affordable housing, @wutrain.bsky.social announced this morning.

Feasibility studies towns and cities did as part of their MBTA Communities compliance work show that, in some Massachusetts towns, affordable housing rules are likely keeping homes of all types from being built.

"Greater Boston isn’t the only metro area facing these challenges – but other cities are solving them." "These cities prove that suburban transit investment isn’t just about mobility – it’s about shaping growth, reducing congestion and strengthening real estate markets."

Over at @cwbeacon.bsky.social, @jenndotsmith.bsky.social dove into some of the fighting over this "unfunded mandate" mess commonwealthbeacon.org/housing/town...

National Development, a big name in the local real estate industry, sees big opportunities in senior housing development. Here's why:

A big development site next to the MBTA's JFK/UMass Red Line station is in line for 754 apartments -- and that's just the start.

A simmering, and very public, dispute between Massachusetts state Auditor Diana DiZoglio and Attorney General Andrea Campbell is escalating after DiZoglio accused Campbell of trying to “scapegoat” her office over a controversial zoning law.

Cambridge's brand-new Volpe Center and downtown Boston's JFK and Tip O'Neill Federal Buildings could be up for sale.

Greater Boston’s pricey rental housing market is getting even more unaffordable, with rents rising at double the national average over the past year.

Suburban transit isn’t just about getting people to work – it’s about supporting local economies and making Greater Boston more livable. But right now, it is treated as an afterthought, @jarjoh.bsky.social writes.

I wrote about the new frontier in land use reform: building codes slate.com/business/202...

After much discussion and debate, the so-called Pink House, a much-beloved Newbury landmark, will be torn down as planned in the coming weeks, officials confirmed. trib.al/kgZYkAb

Do you commute through South Station? What do you think of the huge arches that frame the "Great Space" underneath the tower, and between the train platforms and the station waiting area?

There's an unusual signal in the national housing data. But Boston seems to be escaping the worst of it. More info in our story here: bankerandtradesman.com/canceled-pen...

The MBTA is offering its 26-acre park-and-ride property at its Anderson Woburn commuter rail station up for development. The catch: it's probably too contaminated for housing.

Board approves five-story apartment builidng in Hyde Park that is already being challenged in court www.universalhub.com/2025/board-a... #Boston #zoning #housing

"Too narrow a focus? That’s the big question about the Healey administration’s efforts to tackle the housing crisis to date, which have been skewed towards apartment projects," columnist Scott Van Voorhis argues.