MassGOP moderates strike tweet back | Pause button hit on Wu’s development overhaul | Globe’s odd definition of falling home prices | Two mayors, one small city | Apartment developers get cold feet | About Contrarian Boston |
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Troubling sign: Plans for new apartment projects being put on ice
Amid a whole lot of economic uncertainty right now, some developers are putting plans for new rental and condo projects on hold, both in Boston and the suburbs.
Demetrios Salpoglou, CEO at Boston Pads, an online apartment and real estate platform, has seen five different sales prospectuses for already-approved apartment and residential projects across the Boston area.
The projects range in size from 28 apartments to 180, with the developers looking to sell to another builder rather than move ahead with construction themselves, he said.
Surging construction prices are a major issue for developers, as is the ability to nail down the financing needed to start building.
“I am hearing the banks have dried up,” he said, adding that the other forms of capital still available for developers are more expensive.
Another developer with a number of sizable condo and apartment projects across the Boston put it this way: “If it is not currently financed, it may not be built.”
With apartment rents at all-time highs in the Boston area, any drop off in construction would be bad news.
Boston Pads tracks nearly 90,000 apartments in small and middling-sized buildings owned by “mom and pop” landlords.
But there are currently just 191 listings of available apartments, a shockingly low number.
Yikes!
Wu’s push for a clean sweep of city zoning board hits a speed bump
That would be the Boston City Council, which voted to send Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposed slate of 10 new members for the city’s zoning board to a committee for review.
Supporters of the mayor’s push for an overhaul of the board - which would replace 10 of its 14 members - had hoped for a quick approval by the council of Wu’s nominees at Wednesday’s meeting.
Instead, the slate of proposed new ZBA members will now go before the council’s transportation and development committee. Unless committee assignments have changed, that appears to be chaired by City Councilor Frank Baker, one of the more conservative members of the council and potentially less inclined to give a quick green light to Wu’s proposal.
WalkUP Roslindale, a nonprofit group which advocates for pedestrian and cyclist friendly streets and transit oriented development, has been a strong backer of a ZBA overhaul and had been hoping for a swift approval of Wu’s proposed slate of new zoning board members.
The group has taken the current zoning board to task for shooting down plans for badly needed new housing in Roslindale - which also happens to be the mayor’s home turf as well - over parking concerns.
Stay tuned.
Twitter rebellion: MassGOP moderates take to social media to make case against Trump dominated state party organization
A group of Charlie Baker loving renegades are taking on the MassGOP establishment, one tweet a time.
And they appear to be having some fun while they are at it as well.
With a photo of Baker and former Gov. Bill Weld at the top under the banner “Wicked Masshole,” @TheRealMassGOP fired off its first tweet on Sept. 22.
“Welcome to the REAL MassGOP. This is for Real Republicans who are tired of the Barbie-sized tent of the current @MassGOP. Just like Regina George & Donald Trump - "no performance artists or grifters" are safe. xoxo #mapoli”
And @TheRealMassGOP already appears to be ruffling the right feathers. The group prominently displays a “you’re blocked” message from the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, an organization founded by Rick Green, a top supporter of Republican gubernatorial candidate - and diehard Trump fanboy - Geoff Diehl.
The group also mockingly suggests that MassGOP Chairman Jim Lyons should be handed a “Volunteer of the Year” award.
“Do the @massdems have a Volunteer of the Year award? If so we would like to nominate @JimLyonsMA for all of his work to ensure Democrats get elected in November.”
Joking aside, this rather plaintive tweet cuts to the heart of the matter: “What happened to the party that once produced national leaders, but now barely limps along?”
Sen. Charles Sumner, one of the founder’s of the Massachusetts Republican Party, and a fiery abolitionist who nearly died after a caning by a South Carolina senator and slave holder. He would be appalled at what his party had become. (By Warren (artist); engraved by Hall - Appletons)
Yes indeed, what in the world has happened to the party of Charles Sumner, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Ed Brooke, or, for that matter, Bill Weld and Mitt Romney?
Odd timing: Former and current Boston mayor make big speeches just a day apart
Former Boston mayor and now Labor Secretary Marty Walsh was back in town Wednesday morning, touting what he contends is a revived labor movement in front of a friendly local audience.
Now it’s Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s turn. On Thursday morning Wu will deliver her own speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, and it certainly seems likely that it will include some mention of development and housing issues.
It must make for a strange dynamic for Wu having Walsh, now a big gun in Washington, back in town and on what is now her political turf.
Are they eyeing each other warily? Who knows, but it’s safe to say there is no love lost here. But for Walsh’s appointment as labor secretary, the two would have squared off in last year’s mayoral race.
Boston’s current mayor and its former mayor may both be Democrats, but they are in political camps that are increasingly worlds apart.
Wu endorsed Chris Dempsey in the Democratic race for auditor, even as the city’s powerful construction trade unions, which are very close to Walsh, went all out to defeat him. As reported here, Dempsey’s successful campaign to kill Boston’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic rankled the construction unions and likely didn’t thrill Walsh, who, as mayor, was a leading backer.
And Wu backed labor lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan in the race for attorney general, rather than former City Councilor Andrea Campbell, a Walsh ally, and now the winner of the state primary.
No, home prices aren’t falling yet in the Boston area
Maybe it’s a bit of wishful thinking or the product of a editor stubbornly clinging to a preconceived notion of what the story should say.
But the Globe just ran a second story – actually the first one was on Boston.com, but same difference - that claims home prices are falling locally.
We don’t have a beef with the main thrust of the story - “For many in Mass., homes still out of reach” - which is quite accurate.
The combination of spiraling interest rates, and sky-high prices have effectively priced out large numbers of potential buyers, leading to falling sales.
So far, so good. However, in the subhead, and then in the main body of the story, we are told “prices have dropped a bit” and homes “are selling for a little less.” Another graph kicks off with another misleading phrase, “even as home prices start to edge down.” (Quick note: I am working off the print edition.)
Now that was news to us, given we watch these numbers fairly closely.
So, we scanned the piece to find some supporting statistics, but were only able to find this graph, buried way down in the story – we’ve put the pertinent phrase in italics:
“Prices have ticked down the last two months — as is typical this time of year after peaking in June — with the Greater Boston Association of Realtors reporting its median price for a single-family home at $825,000 in August. That’s down 1.8 percent from July but still 6 percent higher than the same month last year.
Yes, real estate is highly seasonal, and the only comparisons that matter are year over year. You don’t make month over month comparisons, especially in the summer.
The thing is, the fact that prices have not dropped yet, despite everything, is a pertinent part of the story. It illustrates perfectly why the Greater Boston real estate market is so devilishly difficult to navigate for all but the comfortably well off.
But it’s a more complicated story to tell than one that just says sales are falling and now prices are too.
Go figure.
About Contrarian Boston
I have fielded emails over the past couple of months asking what Contrarian Boston is about.
Here’s a link to our mission statement – you can find it in the “about” section.
For a more prosaic, nuts-and-bolts description, read on.
An online newsletter, Contrarian Boston publishes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In Contrarian Boston you’ll find analysis of the day’s news, and original reporting as well.
Our focus is:
· Politics and all levels of governance, good and bad, with an emphasis on state and local, with some national mixed in;
· Economic growth and business, especially real estate, housing and new development projects;
· The media and why it does what it does;
· Education, from school board spats to the doings of multibillion-dollar university endowments;
· And whatever else catches our fancy.