Gary Higgins In its fifth annual Massachusetts Talent and Competitiveness Survey 2025, McKinsey & Co., working with the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, identified three main obstacles to doing business in the Commonwealth: high costs of doing business, high living expenses, and aging infrastructure. Business leaders met Thursday to review the survey results and discuss strategies for […]
by Kim O’Brien While we are still firmly in the most prolific apartment building cycle in U.S. history, supply volumes have finally peaked. The first time apartment supply volumes hit a historic peak was back in 2nd quarter 2023, when quarterly completions surpassed 100,000 units for the first time since RealPage Market Analytics began monitoring the market […]
By Grant Welker There isn’t enough new housing being built in the Boston area to suddenly make the region affordable. But builders are finding places to build — mainly in former industrial pockets in such places as Everett and South Boston, as well as relatively less-dense neighborhoods in Allston and Quincy. Residential developments now under construction […]
By Andrew Brinker A high-profile push by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and some housing advocates to end the state’s three-decade-old ban on rent control has gained little traction with state lawmakers this year. So now supporters are considering another approach: taking the matter to the voters. Cambridge StateRepresentative Mike Connolly — “acting in my personal […]
he U.S. housing market last year bore the brunt of higher mortgage rates that rode spiraling inflation in the broader economy, but that will change this year, according to Susan Wachter, Wharton professor of real estate and finance. “The Fed is using the housing market as a fulcrum to slow overall activity and get the inflation […]
Some were booming before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Others shot up in popularity arguably because of the pandemic. A few have been slow-but-steady-growth markets for some time. The national housing market slowdown has been one of the headlining stories of 2022, after a spike in mortgage rates in the spring turned the heat off what […]
Lumber prices have fallen to their lowest level in more than two years, bringing two-by-fours back to what they cost before the pandemic building boom and pointing to a sharp slowdown in construction. Lumber futures ended Tuesday at $429.30 per thousand board feet, down about one-third from a year ago and more than 70% from […]
While we wait to see if — or rather when — the economy will fall into recession, we can all agree that the housing market on its own is heading for a deep freeze. And both can largely be blamed on the actions of the Federal Reserve. The Fed is widely expected to boost the […]
President Obama released the budget of $100 million in federal fiscal year 2015 supporting the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) Green Line Extension project (GLX) which benefits the economy and environment of Somerville and Medford communities in the upcoming several years. “The Green Line Extension offers Somerville and the region both economic justice and environmental […]
The Business Monitor International upgraded their 2014 real GDP growth forecast from 2.7% to 2.8% with growth set to average 2.4% per year from 2013-2018. Our economy is recovering. With a growing external trade demand from the key US trade partners, including Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom, both the industrial and office segments […]
