Boston and surrounding areas housing crisis

TheRifleman

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http://somerville.wickedlocal.com/n...me-rule-petition-for-real-estate-transfer-fee

I think this picks up steam in the surrounding areas of Boston
Somerville, Medford, Chelsea, East Boston, Everett, possibly Malden.
Cambridge is already gone.

Boston is on fire in real estate and I don’t see relief unless interest rates are dramatically risen which will not happen.

The problem at this point is there needs to be more supply on the market it doesn’t matter if it’s luxury or not. More supply on major transit lines t help contain traffic.

The city of Boston should try to work with south station, Winthrop and harbor garage developments to entice those developements with a possible 1000-2000 condo units each since they are all located on the massive transit lines. The city should help the developers flood the market to try to curtail and possibly drive down housing and rental prices at this point which could offer relief outside the city until we have a massive investment in transit again.

Overall I think Somerville is insane for proposing a transfer tax fee1%. That is not going to do anything for the poor stiffs that don’t own in somerville. They will be forced out because market rents will continue to trend upward. Also the taxpayers are paying insane market rents for section 8. This can’t continue they will need to move in less desirable areas like Worcester, New Bedford, Springfield
 
I don't see how adding a 1% tax on home purchases will do anything.
 
I don't see how adding a 1% tax on home purchases will do anything.

I think the proposal is home sales and that 1% will go to affordable housing fund. The problem is that landlords are renting their places to young vibrant professionals or students. They do not want to section 8 anymore because it locks them in for having those tenants for the long-term. Its not worth it for them because the renters are top of the tier (They have real jobs and pay their rent).

The only solution is build more supply on the market. The only problem I'm seeing in the suburbs is the they are ripping up every area with TREES and open space to build more units.
This is making us into a computer chip without the connection of the natural environment.
Possibly help entice the developers to build 1500-2000 Units on these developments.
SST
Harbor Garage
Wintrhop


I would prefer the city/state to help support the 3 developments in Boston on those Transit Grids to help flood the market with condos which could put pressure on rentals and housing prices.
 
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I think the proposal is home sales and that 1% will go to affordable housing fund. The problem is that landlords are renting their places to young vibrant professionals or students. They do not want to section 8 anymore because it locks them in for having those tenants for the long-term. Its not worth it for them because the renters are top of the tier (They have real jobs and pay their rent).

The only solution is build more supply on the market. The only problem I'm seeing in the suburbs is the they are ripping up every area with TREES and open space to build more units.
This is making us into a computer chip without the connection of the natural environment.
Possibly help entice the developers to build 1500-2000 Units on these developments.
SST
Harbor Garage
Wintrhop


I would prefer the city/state to help support the 3 developments in Boston on those Transit Grids to help flood the market with condos which could put pressure on rentals and housing prices.

Keep those locations for the "evil rich people." They'll pay more in property tax in one year than most Bostonians will in a decade.

The solution is transit oriented development. Take Quincy Adams as an example. There's an 85,000 square foot parking lot next to the station that probably functions mostly as overflow space for Home Depot and the station itself. Building even just six floors of apartments over two of enclosed parking and some basic retail(a coffee shop, bank and a fast food spot or two) would yield at least 400 new units. Without looking at parking structures and underutilized buildings near transit, Boston and the surrounding communities could easily add a few thousand units on MBTA parking lots alone.

I'm not a fan of punitive taxation but I would enact the sort of tax structure the DC has to promote growth.

Class Tax Rate per $100 Description
1 $0.85 Residential real property, including multifamily
2 $1.65 Commercial and industrial real property, including hotels and motels, for the first $3 million of assessed value
$1.85 Commercial and industrial real property, including hotels and motels, for assessed value more than $3 million
3 $5.00 Vacant real property
4 $10.00 Blighted real property
 
How could Somerville try to pass a bill for a transfer tax on the sellers of residential property. When Boston which is down the next city over is giving away millions of tax dollars on prime property to the corporations to build?

That concept alone proves my point on how corrupt and hypocritical these hacks are.
Tax---the responsible to death
Give tax breaks to corporations on prime property that is priceless to support our agenda.
And call it job creation.
 
Give tax breaks to corporations on prime property that is priceless to support our agenda.
And call it job creation.

Basically all of those tax breaks require job creation.

And remember the commercial tax rate is a bit higher then your residential one.
 
Then why not issue them to for all developments in sometype of percentage instead of the selective group?

In most cases when tax incentives have been granted, Massachusetts has been in competition with other states for those jobs.
 
In most cases when tax incentives have been granted, Massachusetts has been in competition with other states for those jobs.

If tax incentives create jobs then why not issue tax incentives to all companies by a certain percent across the board?
Every state is always in the hunt for jobs and in competition with each other. The states need to focus on efficient transits and create a positive vibe to lure companies to desirable location.

Instead of Mass state officials picking and choosing who should get tax breaks and incentives. Create a fair playing field. (Instead of letting only certain groups continue to build up wealth off the taxpayers backs on prime property)
Just issue a certain percent cut across the board for all developers & businesses to help lower their development costs.

"Why is Somerville calling for an additional transfer tax on residential properties because of lack of housing why Boston is giving prime property away with tax incentives to corporations that are already worth billions?"
 
The idea is why lower taxes for businesses if we aren't competing for the jobs. Financially for the city/state it is better to only give incentives for companies which are bidding out the jobs, like Amazon.

Sure it's not fair but life isn't fair. It is what's best for the city/state.

Also you have to look at what types of jobs are created. No point in giving incentives to companies creating low wage service jobs.
 
The idea is why lower taxes for businesses if we aren't competing for the jobs. Financially for the city/state it is better to only give incentives for companies which are bidding out the jobs, like Amazon.

Sure it's not fair but life isn't fair. It is what's best for the city/state.

Also you have to look at what types of jobs are created. No point in giving incentives to companies creating low wage service jobs.

So I have an idea.
Instead of me paying taxes: I have an idea that will help create jobs. Can you pay more in taxes this year instead of the average 28%-- can you pay 60% more to cover my share?

I can create jobs-- you can't-- so pick up my share. Life isn't fair. Just keep working and shutup mentality.
 
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So I have an idea.
Instead of me paying taxes: I have an idea that will help create jobs. Can you pay more in taxes this year instead of the average 28%-- can you pay 60% more to cover my share?

I can create jobs-- you can't-- so pick up my share. Life isn't fair. Just keep working and shutup mentality.

Except you can't compare corporate and personal tax rates. All of the employees of a company are still paying their federal and state income taxes, what is being discounted is a short term local taxes, with the idea that a company like Amazon will still bring in way more in income taxes than given up, and then when they have built out/become established the corporate tax abatement go away to the normal rate that other business pay on property/etc. A large corporation like Amazon also creates a ton of peripheral jobs to support their large number of employees.
 
Vancouver is the Canadian version of San Francisco. Not something we want to emulate.

What is so bad about San Francisco? Other than the cost of housing, which people seem to be just fine paying, it blows Boston out of the water in every possible way.
 
What is so bad about San Francisco? Other than the cost of housing, which people seem to be just fine paying, it blows Boston out of the water in every possible way.

I would have to respectfully disagree with that statement.
 
San Francisco is facing a housing crisis, and homelessness is a huge problem as a result.

Sure it's a nice city, but you can't ignore the fact that it's extremely un-affordable unless you're making 6 figures or more.
 
San Francisco is facing a housing crisis, and homelessness is a huge problem as a result.

Sure it's a nice city, but you can't ignore the fact that it's extremely un-affordable unless you're making 6 figures or more.

Boston is not far behind. Multi-units in Everett priced around 600-700k
The poor will be forced out of here in the next 5years.
 
I think that one disadvantage that SFO has is that it's surrounded by water from 3 sides so it's hard to grow.
 

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