Like he** I'm going to pay these prices! (Boston, Canton: lease, neighborhood)

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by id77

Everyone? No. More people? Yes.

We can accept that the wheels of progress are turning that way and prepare our present and future workforce for it, or we can handcuff ourselves to the past and lament the loss of the way it once was while those wheels crush us.

The ship has sailed for a lot of people and that will just be passed down to their offspring (which seems to be ones reproducing the most in this country). You think the millions at the southern border currently are going to be getting STEM degrees?

[bigfatdude]

People would feel a lot better about being taxed if that money wasn't being spend on $350,000 city hall single bathroom renovations, 180 hour weekly overtime self-approved time cards, armies of assistant senior directors of inclusion and tolerance and eight figure studies of the effects of racism on earthworm migration.

Originally Posted by massnative71

Bunch of nonsense. These Robin Hood wealth redistribution ponzi schemes never help the middle-class. What they do is encourage and sustain a permanent underclass, exactly what these people want. Same reason they are for illegal immigration. Gotta have that steady stream of peeons ready to "serve" them. Middle class want housing, good schools and transportation infrastructure. The best way for these $300K earners to show they "care", is to tell us which 150 acres in their W town they want to put the next townhouse development, or which commuter rail station they want upgraded. I'll be here waiting...

[msRB311]

Right they got rid of all admin positions but now there's a 200k diversity inclusion officer in every organization because they'll look racist if they dont have one.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by msRB311

White flight happened before I was born. What does that have to do with anything anyways ? Should we all just feel sad and horrified forever that racism once happened in Boston ? And maybe still does happen ? What does that have to do with how expensive it is to live here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETR9qrVS17g

Step 1
Divide people as to those with and without capital

Step 2
Develop areas with capital better than those without. Most people of color couldn't even get a mortgage until the 1970s

Step 3
Allow compounding with tax regulations (mortgage deduction) and assets to ensure the balance

So yeah it does have to deal with it. The tax advantages of having a home are huge.

How do you make money in housing? Well 4 obvious ways
1) Sell it for more than you bought it
2) Rent it out
3) Home equity loan
4) Reverse mortgage

Now I'm not saying that everyone should own a house. But if we're talking three, four, five generations of a family that constantly rent then generational wealth probably is not going to happen. There is no prop 2 1/2 for renting in Mass. So if property taxes go up beyond 2 1/2 % vs a rent that obviously can go up to whatever it wants....

Then add in a NIMBY crowd, zoning issues, lack of transit and businesses that precovid didn't want telecommutting. Let's not also forget the value of a school district.

[id77]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Bunch of nonsense. These Robin Hood wealth redistribution ponzi schemes never help the middle-class. What they do is encourage and sustain a permanent underclass, exactly what these people want. Same reason they are for illegal immigration. Gotta have that steady stream of peeons ready to "serve" them. Middle class want housing, good schools and transportation infrastructure. The best way for these $300K earners to show they "care", is to tell us which 150 acres in their W town they want to put the next townhouse development, or which commuter rail station they want upgraded. I'll be here waiting...

Will Waltham work for this, or does it have to be a Weston or Wellesley kind of W town? The latter, I'm sure.

Ok, let's build townhouses in Wellesley. All those people who can afford $1 million but not $1.5 million will gladly swoop right in and buy them all up. Build more? Ok. All those people who can afford $700k but not $1 million will gladly swoop right in and buy them all up. Borderline good towns are more affordable now that the wealthier moved in to the new Wellesley and Weston digs, but now those towns are seeing depreciation on home sales and lower tax revenues.

Build even more? Whoops, Wellesley just became Waltham. The wealthy leave and move to Dover just as the $700k and $1 million crowds fled their old towns for better pastures. No problem, let's repeat this and start building townhouses in Dover so the middle class can have good schools...

The Robin Hood redistribution may be nonsense, but it's the same kind of redistribution nonsense you're asking for. You want access to the towns that wealthy tax dollars are boosting at middle class prices. I'm NOT saying this isn't an ideal goal to aspire for; it actually is. I'm saying this simplistic 'lets just build more in W towns' will not solve the problem. Instead, take those rich tax dollars and build up the transportation and education infrastructure in middle class communities so that ALL towns have good schools and transportation instead of focusing on shoving more people into select areas.

[Boston Shudra]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

It impacts housing costs because suburbia uses fortress zoning laws to protect housing prices and keeps them beyond the reach of lower income people. Things like frontage requirements and minimum lot size. Zoning to forbid any kind of high density housing. Personally, I benefit from it since it limits the number of children in the public school system and keeps my property taxes low. Developers use 40B to bypass zoning for apartments reserving 25% as affordable housing but it doesn't happen very often and only on garbage plots of land with things like toxic waste issues where they couldn't profitably be subdivided into single family homes.

Originally Posted by mdovell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETR9qrVS17g

Step 1
Divide people as to those with and without capital

Step 2
Develop areas with capital better than those without. Most people of color couldn't even get a mortgage until the 1970s

Step 3
Allow compounding with tax regulations (mortgage deduction) and assets to ensure the balance

So yeah it does have to deal with it. The tax advantages of having a home are huge.

Tried to rep you both, but couldn’t!

[bigfatdude]

So in other words go ahead and ruin the poor towns with public housing and section 8 because my heart bleeds for the poor and the oppressed but don't touch my rich town because I don't want it ruined? How very judgegarrity of you!

Originally Posted by id77

Will Waltham work for this, or does it have to be a Weston or Wellesley kind of W town? The latter, I'm sure.

Ok, let's build townhouses in Wellesley. All those people who can afford $1 million but not $1.5 million will gladly swoop right in and buy them all up. Build more? Ok. All those people who can afford $700k but not $1 million will gladly swoop right in and buy them all up. Borderline good towns are more affordable now that the wealthier moved in to the new Wellesley and Weston digs, but now those towns are seeing depreciation on home sales and lower tax revenues.

Build even more? Whoops, Wellesley just became Waltham. The wealthy leave and move to Dover just as the $700k and $1 million crowds fled their old towns for better pastures. No problem, let's repeat this and start building townhouses in Dover so the middle class can have good schools...

The Robin Hood redistribution may be nonsense, but it's the same kind of redistribution nonsense you're asking for. You want access to the towns that wealthy tax dollars are boosting at middle class prices. I'm NOT saying this isn't an ideal goal to aspire for; it actually is. I'm saying this simplistic 'lets just build more in W towns' will not solve the problem. Instead, take those rich tax dollars and build up the transportation and education infrastructure in middle class communities so that ALL towns have good schools and transportation instead of focusing on shoving more people into select areas.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by id77

Will Waltham work for this, or does it have to be a Weston or Wellesley kind of W town? The latter, I'm sure.

Waltham is probably doing its share already, but the thing is there's not much empty land left there to build. Even Wellesley is pretty built out, no? It's the Westons, Waylands, Sharons. etc. that contain a disproportionate amount of the metro's available land (that's a reasonable commute and close to existing transportation infrastructure) and that is who is holding the region hostage.

Originally Posted by id77

Ok, let's build townhouses in Wellesley. All those people who can afford $1 million but not $1.5 million will gladly swoop right in and buy them all up. Build more? Ok. All those people who can afford $700k but not $1 million will gladly swoop right in and buy them all up. Borderline good towns are more affordable now that the wealthier moved in to the new Wellesley and Weston digs, but now those towns are seeing depreciation on home sales and lower tax revenues.

Build even more? Whoops, Wellesley just became Waltham. The wealthy leave and move to Dover just as the $700k and $1 million crowds fled their old towns for better pastures. No problem, let's repeat this and start building townhouses in Dover so the middle class can have good schools...

Being way melodramatic here. These affluent upscale communities will not turn into a ghetto over the addition of a few tasteful well planned townhouse complexes. They will still be very nice places. People like you who are new to town, may not realize that these "top" suburbs were not always the exclusive places they are today. Even I remember when Needham was still middle-upper middle class, for instance. But look man, I'm not just talking out of my rear here. I'm going by other actual cities I've been, that have more successfully met their housing/growth needs. We can learn from others, as to what works and what doesn't.

Originally Posted by id77

The Robin Hood redistribution may be nonsense, but it's the same kind of redistribution nonsense you're asking for. You want access to the towns that wealthy tax dollars are boosting at middle class prices. I'm NOT saying this isn't an ideal goal to aspire for; it actually is. I'm saying this simplistic 'lets just build more in W towns' will not solve the problem. Instead, take those rich tax dollars and build up the transportation and education infrastructure in middle class communities so that ALL towns have good schools and transportation instead of focusing on shoving more people into select areas.

Again, every town needs to be part of the solution. Places like Quincy are already doing their share, even though they have much less room to work with. There are so many ultra low density towns in close proximity to jobs and transportation (they make up such a disproportionate amount of the metro), that it's simply not realistic, possible or at all sustainable for them to continue along the delusionary path of "let the "others" deal with it.

[TheTimidBlueBars]

Why isn't living somewhere with a roommate (a friend, not just some rando) an option?

You only get to go through young adulthood once, do you really want to spend 3-5 more years of that living with your parents?

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by TheTimidBlueBars

Why isn't living somewhere with a roommate (a friend, not just some rando) an option?

You only get to go through young adulthood once, do you really want to spend 3-5 more years of that living with your parents?

A lot of people do this well into their 20's, possibly even 30's if they haven't married yet. Having roomates can be fun although I'm sure it wasn't fun this past year...unless you really liked each other.