The rental supply glut in Downtown Boston has received quite a bit of attention in the past 12 months. The pandemic caused a shift in demand for housing in Boston, and many Downtown neighborhoods went from being the hardest areas to find an apartment to the easiest seemingly overnight.

In an article that cites real data and provides analysis, Beth Treffeisen of the Boston Sun reports on research by the Alliance of Downtown Civic Organizations and UMass researcher Mark Merante and states:

short-term units in Boston are constricting the supply of rental units, keeping rents in existing rental units artificially higher, and displacing residents.

An information session on The Beverly apartment complex will be held tonight at the Boston Public Library in Dudley Square, from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm. Read more.

http://boston.curbed.com/archives/2014/07/middle-class-housing-may-not-b...

The first round of lottery assignments for students in Boston Public Schools went out last week. Some parents were overjoyed that their children would be going to the schools they preferred; others (probably, including the lady whose child didn't get into his first 9 choices) were faced with disappointment.

But, worry not, parents! You have another option - Simply move!

You find the most-interesting things in a barber shop.

Here are a couple photos of pages from the April 1925 issue of Real Estate News newspaper, "Dedicated to the Development and Welfare of Boston and New England and to those who Own, Occupy, Sell or Manage Real Estate".

On the cover is a story on plans to completely rehab an existing building on Newbury Street. The renovation did take place, as Bostonians know, as the property was the location of Kakas Furs fur for many years. In the left-hand corner of the page is a photo of the building as it existed circa 1925.

Inside the newspaper is a short article entitled "WHY BOXES REMAIN ON THE STREET" regarding trash receptacles in the Back Bay.

John Keith ponders the case of some couple that put their house up for auction, then refused an $830,000 bid as too far under their $1-million starting price:

... Dude, you've already received the right offer. If you want to sell your home anytime this year, or possibly, next year, take the $830,000. Your property isn't worth $1.25 million, it isn't worth $899,000. It's worth $830,000 - what someone was willing to pay you for it. ...

It's a condo cat fight on the South Boston waterfront!

881 E. First St. doesn't like 9 W. Broadway:

... If you like Ct. Sq. Press/ 9 West Broadway but don't like the high price (or paying for a big advertising budget), the high common fees (& paying for a concierge you might never need or use), having to ante up $38K for parking (& having to wait going years to get it) and want a loft that is really in the Seaport (and not at the end of West Broadway's less than desirable neighborhood), then come visit us at 881. We're cooler. They're not and we know it! ...

In attending a meeting of one of Fort Hill's dueling neighborhood associations, eeka learns that there are two ways to buy a house - and one is a lot cheaper:

Heard on TOTN this afternoon.

From RealEstateJournal:

The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass./N.H., metropolitan area tops
the list as the region with the highest probability of experiencing a
housing-price decline. The area scored a 533 on PMI's Risk Index, indicating a
53.3% probability of weaker home prices in the next two years.

That marks a big increase in risk for the New England hub. A
year ago, Boston's probability for home-price declines stood at 23.3%. The
area's problem "is that it has had strong home-price increases relative to poor
income growth," says Marco Van Akkeren, an economist at PMI.