Housing

An estimated 39 million homes and businesses in the United States could soon face skyrocketing insurance premiums — if they can even find insurance coverage at all. That’s according to a new report from First Street Foundation, which warns that this “insurance bubble” could lead to a costly, widespread housing crisis coast-to-coast.

The fight to bring back rent control in Massachusetts cleared another hurdle Wednesday as Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell certified a proposal that could potentially put the issue on the ballot. The proposal filed by state Rep. Mike Connolly would lift the ban on rent control that has been in place for nearly 30 years. Connolly, a Cambridge Democrat, said…

Gov. Maura Healey has activated up to 250 members of the Massachusetts National Guard to help at hotels providing emergency shelter services. Thursday’s move comes weeks after Healey declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts over a historic influx of migrants seeking help from the Commonwealth’s strained shelter system. Starting next week, the members of the National Guard who...

Business is booming in the Bay State. But while the number of corporate headquarters is growing so there’s plenty of places to work, finding a place to live is another story. For many people in Massachusetts, the dream of owning a home is simply out of reach. You often hear about limited inventory and high demand, but the lack...

Some first-year students at Northeastern University are getting new room assignments just weeks before the start of the fall semester after significant water damage closed a dormitory at the Boston campus. White Hall was closed over “significant water damage impacting the structure of the interior and exterior brick walls,” a university spokeswoman said Tuesday. The damage was discovered during a…

More than 1,700 families are currently living in emergency shelter hotel rooms across the state, with many from Massachusetts living extremely far away from their home communities — which is against state regulations. As the housing crisis stretches on, with an emergency being declared Tuesday, we’re seeing more and more of those families being placed 50 miles — in some…

Social and healthcare workers have been calling on Gov. Healey to declare a state of emergency in order to tap into federal funds and access additional housing.

Gov. Maura Healey announced on Tuesday that she has declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts, as a historic influx of migrants seek help from the Commonwealth’s strained shelter system. Healey — joined by Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, other officials, advocates and faith leaders — said that the number of people in the state’s emergency shelter system is nearing 20,000,…

The White House also announced that it was forming an inter-agency task force to develop ways to fund efforts to convert more commercial buildings to residential housing

Para leer en Español, haz clic aquí. Looking for a place to rent but feeling pressured by the cost of living in the Boston area? You’re not alone.    According to an April Realtor.com survey, rents in Boston and other northeastern cities continue to rise faster than the rest of the country. The same survey found median rent in the Boston...

As the cost of living in the U.S. continues to climb, foreclosures are also on the rise.

The “red flags are waving” across Massachusetts, with housing, transportation and migration patterns continuing to trend in the wrong direction, according to a new report. Massachusetts had the lowest rental vacancy rate in the U.S. in 2022 and the second-highest median rents, Boston features the second-highest traffic delay times in the nation, and the state recently posted its highest outmigration…

Mobile home parks are among the few affordable options that remain for extremely low-income people.

In 2020, 27-year-old Precious Price built a tiny home in her backyard for $35,000. The income she earns from renting out her main house covers all her living expenses, including mortgage fees and property taxes. Here’s exactly how she built it — from start to finish.

More young couples are moving in together sooner, amid sky-high rent prices.

After struggling to find an apartment rental in London on a budget, Harrison Marshall turned a dumpster into a tiny home for $5,000. Here’s a look inside his “weirdly comfortable” 25-square-foot space, where he now lives for $62 a month.

The increase will affect many borrowers across a range of credit scores, but the change is ultimately designed to help make homeownership more accessible.

There’s turmoil inside the Department of Housing and Community Development, with no end in sight to Massachusetts’ housing crisis. The department has an important mission to help homeless families find affordable housing, but it’s still having a difficult time finding emergency shelter for families in need. Through records and multiple sources with direct knowledge of what’s happening, the NBC10...

One housing advocate made it clear to lawmakers on Monday: without a pandemic-era policy pausing eviction cases while an application for aid is pending, “people would have been on the street.” Isaac Simon Hodes, executive director of the Lynn United for Change group, said the policy often referred to as Chapter 257 proved “absolutely critical” during its tenure, calling it…

With rents rising at mobile home parks across the U.S., housing advocates are urging state legislatures to pass bills that would help residents buy their parks if they’re put up for sale.