Homeowner lost her paid off house for $2600 in unpaid property taxes
A recent article on MassLive details the saga of a Worcester homeowner who paid off her home's mortgage in 2015 (after only 19 years) and in 2019 missed one property tax payment. She didn't realize she'd missed the payment and kept paying her taxes normally. Then one day she found that the home had been sold through a foreclosure tax sale to a private lien harvesting company, Tallage, which paid about $20,000 for the house.These companies that buy homes in tax foreclosure love to find houses with no mortgage, as they resell and make a huge profit without having to pay the bank.The Worcester homeowner is fighting the taking and a recent US Supreme Court ruling makes it likely that she will get to keep her home and not owe Tallage the $70,000 they're asking her to pay to get ownership back.Read the whole article here: She lost her home over a tax bill
New T finder game to test your mapping skills
MBTA Guesser is a new free game that lets users try to figure out where to locate a T stops on a map.Users are given the name of a stop and which line it is, then asked to click on a map of Greater Boston (that you can't zoom in on). There are five rounds per game.The blue pin is your guess and the red pin is where the actual stop is located.Each round awards a maximum score of 5,000 points (the closer you are to the actual stop, the higher your score) for a possible total 25,000 in one game.The user below did not do so well, try the game and see if you can do better!
Another father-son movie filming in Western Mass
First it was "Barron's Cove" with Stephen Lang filming in Springfield, and now it's "Blood Knot" filming in Pittsfield with Michael Douglas.Both movies feature father-son dynamics, and the Michael Douglas vehicle stars his real-life son, Cameron Douglas.
Phoenix: hottest, least sustainable city is also the top destination for movers
Phil Rosen of Business Insider reported on the record number of homebuyers who are trying to move away from unaffordable areas of the country (top three: San Francisco, NYC, Boston) to more affordable areas. 25.4% of people looking to move are house hunting in a different metro-area. Before the pandemic, only 20% of homebuyers were looking outside of their current area.The most-searched for areas, according to Redfin data, are Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Miami. And while those areas have a lower cost of living and more affordable housing, they also have a deteriorating quality of life due to intense heat and storm activity, thanks to climate change.Arizona is now limiting construction in the Greater Phoenix area because the groundwater is not sufficient to support the additional residents who are coming in. Phoenix is the hottest city in the US, the least-sustainable city in the US and is also the #1 most searched for destination for people moving. The temperature is now steadily over 100 degrees in the summer, which is almost unbearable and definitely not sustainable for human life. An article on Salon recently suggested that Phoenix will be uninhabitable by 2099.The median single family home in Phoenix costs $450,000. In Boston, the median single family home costs $820,000. People are clearly willing to sustain the heat if they can't sustain the costs of the cooler Northeast.Remote work is surely playing a part in people seeking to move South and West, but all that computer work also uses electricity, putting further pressure on the grid.
A TV Weatherman Reports a Death Threat
Chris Gloniger, a former weatherman for an Iowa television station, wrote a first-person account of his experience receiving critical and then threatening emails that disparaged him and the idea of climate change. The Des Moines police found the sender, who pled guilty to harassment.Gloniger quit his job in Iowa and got a job as Senior Scientist in Climate and Risk Communication at Woods Hole. He plans to build "climate literacy", help first responders integrate climate change into their emergency operation plans, and ensure environmental justice is part of "conversations about building resilient communities".You can read all of Gloniger's piece, which appeared in the Boston Globe Magazine, here: I spoke about climate change as a TV meteorologist and death threats followed
Are New England's dams ready for the 21st century?
The recent devastating flooding in Vermont, caused by massive rainfall into already saturated ground, had officials sounding warnings about the state's dams. Would they hold? The Army Corps of Engineers was on hand to manage the disaster if the dams failed. In the end, they held. Now the question is, for how long?In 2011, a Massachusetts auditor found that 100 dams in the state were unsafe or in poor condition and many communities near those dams did not have emergency action plans to evacuate residents if they failed. As of 2023, 60 of the 100 problem dams are safe but 40 are not.As rain events come more often, what will happen to New England's old dams? Read more in this Boston Globe piece.
Are dome homes the answer to climate change?
R. Buckminster Fuller and Lloyd Khan popularized geodesic buildings in the late 1960s. They are round, which makes them stand out, and they are energy efficient. Counter-cultural types of the 1970s loved them as DIY residences and many commercial buildings were constructed as geodesic domes - the Epcot Center at Disney World and the Dome of Expo 67 in Montreal may be the best known.They are made of triangles and have less surface area than a rectangular building. They are easier to insulate, snow falls off them, and they withstand earthquakes. Their time may have come again!Architects and design schools (along with homeowners) are thinking about ways to build homes that will withstand the dangers of climate change: wildfires, snow, mud, flooding, draught.Read a recent NYTimes article with images of several dome homes here: Alternative Homebuilding
Foreign summer workers can't find anywhere to live on the Cape either
Cape Cod has relied on summer workers who come from elsewhere in the US and from abroad for decades and as fewer low-wage workers can afford to live on the Cape, more non-local workers are needed. The foreign workers travel on J-1 visas; they are high school or college students who want to make some money and live in America during their summer breaks.Large resort employers can house their summer staff - in fact Chatham Bars Inn expects to hire 100 J-1 workers this summer and will put them up in a hotel and other residences just for their employees. But smaller employers who need the help can't find housing for their employees and those young people are left to comb through Craigslist or Marketplace - often from back in their home country.Things go wrong and some are left scrambling at the last minute. so the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce has hired someone to coordinate the housing for the J-1 workers this summer. Read more about it on the Boston Globe's newsletter here.
Brockton Tree Stands for Liberty
Brockton's Liberty Tree has long been a symbol of freedom and has been maintained by locals for more than a hundred years. It is on privately owned land, but the city of Brockton is working to buy the land and make a park for the tree.Read more from the Boston Globe about the history of this tree and the people who have cared for it.
Frosted Elfin Caterpillar Spotted in Montague, Mass at Last
The Montague Plains Wildlife Management Area has been working over the past several years to establish and maintain native plants, and that has paid off. A rare frosted elfin caterpillar has recently been observed there.Read more about it here.
West Roxbury: Residents and City Hall differ on Centre Street plans
The Boston Globe reports that Centre Street in West Roxbury has had numerous incidents of vehicle to vehicle crashes and of cars hitting pedestrians, including one death in 2019, The city and residents understandably want to reduce car and human touches, but have different ideas of the best way to get there.Some West Roxbury residents want longer times for the walk signal at pedestrian crossings (allowing pedestrians more time to get across the street), more signalized intersections with those longer walk times (thus slowing down drivers who have to stop more frequently) and an increased police presence issuing tickets to speeders.The city wants to reduce Centre Street from four lanes to three between LaGrange and West Roxbury Parkway and add parking-free bike lanes. The city says this fits into the Mayor's "Safety Surge" program and will transform this area from a speedway into a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.In 2019 under Mayor Marty Walsh, the city proposed the same plan. Opposed residents gathered 1,000 signatures and scuttled the plan. City officials say their minds won't be changed this time and construction will begin in October 2023.
Springfield - Court Square Hotel taking applications for prospective tenants
The Court Square Hotel is now taking applications for its 59 market-rate apartments. What is the market rate for Downtown Springfield? One-bedrooms range from $1,500 to $1,980 and two-bedrooms from $1,790 to $2,315. The apartments feature laundry (in-unit) and a fitness center and community rooms (in the building). Up to two pets are allowed per unit (up to 70lbs) and there's a $50 per pet fee for housing pets.You can check out the listings and architectural renderings here.
Lessons from the Canadian wildfires
The New York Times recently reported on the economic impacts of the Canadian wildfires on our neighbor to the north. The health-related costs probably are the first thing one thinks of, but also taking a hit are oil and gas operations, timber, and tourism.Whole neighborhoods have been washed away with a result of many people losing their homes, cars, and material possessions. Canada has suffered many natural disasters in the 21st century and the cost of them continues to rise, which makes insurers concerned.Read the whole article here: Canada Offers Lesson in the Economic Toll of Climate Change
Logan needs a few more years to get back on track
The Boston Globe reports that airline passenger travel is pretty much back to pre-pandemic levels nationwide. Some airports are lagging and Logan is one of them. Traffic at Logan is about 7% below what it was in the 2018-2019 season.Read the whole article here: Air traffic nationwide has rebounded
Climate refugees with money choose Vermont
A January 2022 piece in the online news site Seven Days VT featured stories of people called "climate change refugees" - those who had lived in other US communities but who left due to changing weather and living conditions and chose Vermont. The story is part of a series about the housing crisis in the state called Locked Out. Since 2020, the housing market in Vermont has changed drastically. Everyone seems to know someone who was offered a job and couldn't take it because they couldn't find a place to live. Everyone seems to know someone whose rent just keeps going up and up and they don't know what to do. Everyone seems to know of "zombie houses" that are second (or third) homes that wealthy out-of-staters only use for a few weekends each year. And everyone seems to have met people who moved to the state because they loved the climate here and were getting burned out or heated out of their home state.Prior to COVID, there was plenty of real estate available in Vermont to buy, though the rental market was tight across the state. Residential properties with 20-100 acres would stay on the market for several months and often sell below asking price. The housing stock in the state is old and in need of repair. People have smaller families and don't need or want a big old farmhouse. Zoning and environmental restrictions (the notorious Act 250 which basically blocks all commercial development in the state) make it hard to change a big farmhouse into a bunch of apartments.Enter people who were either rich-rich or house-rich from other parts of the country with better housing markets than Vermont had pre-COVID. They swooped in, often buying with cash, and local people were priced out.Many of the relocaters are retired, though some have young children - the younger families are either able to live without working (trust fundees) or work remotely, if they managed to find a Vermont home with internet.In 2020, there were 1,000 more homes bought by out-of-state buyers compared to 2019 and the median price of a home rose 32% to $325,000, putting homeownership out of grasp for most local people. The median household income in the state is $67,674 and only $37,903 per capita.Vermont is a small state - the population is under 650,000 - so relatively small changes can make a big impact. You can read the whole Seven Days article, including more specifics about the people interviewed, here.
Proposal to build 4 million SF of new buildings in South Boston
Core Investments is proposing a major redevelopment of a 21-acre space in South Boston. If approved, the development would contain 11 buildings with a mix of ground-floor retail, industrial/lab/office space, and multiple residential units.This would likely be a ten-year long project, and the first proposed phase would create 2 million SF of space: a 325-unit apartment building at 495 Dorchester Ave and three commercial buildings.The Boston Globe reported on the proposal, but Core Investments declined to be interviewed.
Weymouth brewhouse plans
In 2019, Weymouth approved a zoning overlay district in the downtown area, in hopes of revitalizing some blighted areas.The owner of the Union Brewhouse in Weymouth had proposed a redevelopment of his site from a single-family and bar/restaurant into a 36-unit apartment building with a 3,000 SF restaurant, spread over two new buildings.Fire officials objected to the original plan, because they wouldn't have enough access to the sides of the buildings. Jennings came to the zoning board again with new plans for one, four-story building with 28 apartments and a ground-floor restaurant (the Union Brewhouse, which will be twice its current size), plus two large roof decks.He is requesting variances for the height (he'd like to exceed the height limit by two feet) and number of stories (he'd like 4, the zoning says 3 is the maximum).The hearing is scheduled for July 12.Read the Patriot Ledger article here: Changes made in plans to redevelop Weymouth brewhouse site
Flooding impacts everything, including the T
The Communications Earth & Environment journal published a report earlier this year that finds that flooding and related water damages currently cost $24 million per year and are expected to reach $58 million annually by 2030. They warn of potentially permanent inundation of some of the underground and low-lying areas of the MBTA.Lead author, Michael Martello of MIT's Transit Lab said that the MBTA's lack of action in addressing water has "already doubled their risk and is expected to double it again if nothing is done" in a Boston Globe article, which you can read in full here: Climate change could be a costly problem for the MBTA, report says.
Framingham booms again
Framingham is booming again. In the years after WW2, Framingham was a super-suburb and epitomized the optimism of the post-war era. Some of the highlights of mid-century Framingham were the 1951 opening of Shoppers World (the first mall east of the Rocky Mountains), the opening of the Mass Pike in 1957, and then large company's HQs, along with thousands of suburban residents as farmland was turned into single-family subdivisions.But the Pike and subdivisions killed the downtown and around 1990, the remaining major downtown businesses (Avery Dennison, General Motors, and Cushing Hospital) closed.Yet around that time, Brazilian immigrants were starting to flock to the affordable downtown area of Framingham, and they began renovating the city's center.And since the early 2000s, large apartment buildings (some renovations of old factories, most new construction) added about 1,000 residential units downtown. And that has encouraged more businesses, such as the large Jack's Abby Brewing, to locate downtown.There are another 1,200 residential units approved for construction, and in a recent Boston Globe article, the city's Planning Director, Sarkis Sarkisian, said, "Barely a week goes by that I don't hear from a developer interested in building in Framingham."Read a PDF of the Globe article here: Framingham is reinventing itself
Housing Authorities Combine Financing to Build More Public Housing
Many public housing projects were in bad shape in the late 20th century. Crime was often rampant and the dense concentration of very poor people brought many social ills. Many municipalities felt they couldn't absorb more housing projects and in 1999, a federal law, the Faircloth Amendment, went into effect capping the number of public housing units in any city or town at the number of units that existed that year.For a deep dive into affordable housing vocabulary, see our previous blog here. Affordable housing continued to be built, as the Faircloth Amendment covered public housing projects - all-affordable developments that are operated by local housing authorities and that continue to sometimes have a bad reputation. These are technically known as Section 9 housing. The funding for construction of these units comes exclusively from the Federal Government (HUD) and per-unit funding is low, which is why they are shoddily constructed and frequently fall into disrepair.Section 8 housing, however, is more flexible and allows developers building such units to access bank financing (not exclusively HUD funding) for capital projects.Activists have tried to repeal the Faircloth Amendment and unit cap to no avail, but as the years have gone on, the number of very-low-income units has decreased due to demolition and redevelopment into market-rate units. Federally financed affordable units must be guaranteed to be income-restricted for 30 years, but after that they can come out of the affordable pool.So even though cities could have built more public housing to get back up to 1999 levels, the available funding from HUD (the required, exclusive funding source) was scarce and wasn't enough to build really good housing.In 2017, HUD itself created a workaround to allow Section 9 units to be converted into Section 8 units, which don't have a cap in numbers and which can be built using private financing, and which reimburse housing authorities at a higher rate.For an excellent and detailed overview of how the Section 9 to Section 8 process works, see this 2017 article from the Fulton County (NY) Daily Gazette. Cambridge and Holyoke's housing authorities are two communities that are taking this route to put together multi-faceted financing using the Section 8 vouchers to build more units. Holyoke is now 189 units under the 1999 level and is about to build 30 units to get closer to that upper limit, after adding 9 public units to an innovative development in South Holyoke that contains public (Section 8) units, 3 moderate-income units (up to 50% of the AMI) and that will contain 19 shared-equity townhouses, where the resident owns the building and the housing authority owns the land and the house is preserved as permanently affordable.Cambridge is about 1,500 units shy of the 1999 cap on public housing. Unlike Holyoke, residential real estate is in high demand in Cambridge, so more units that reached their 30 year affordability cap were turned into market rate units.Cambridge is currently in the process of building 124 new public housing units using the Section 8 conversion process. Cambridge's housing authority is also talking to neighboring Medford to build units there, according to the Boston Globe. Local housing authorities are allowed to operate anywhere in Massachusetts, so if the Cambridge-Medford deal goes through, Cambridge public housing tenants may live in Medford, where construction costs are lower.Boston is 2,900 units below the 1999 cap, but has not yet devised a plan to rebuild the units, per the Globe article.