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MadstopSnow t1_j4mfpzj wrote

While inflation plays a small part of this, about 25%, the real driver of this is:

  1. Everyone wants to live in Massachusetts (because its awesome)
  2. The people who are here and OWN their land don't want to build new housing, anywhere. There are no towns that I am aware of who want TONS of new buildings and high-rises.

So, the limited housing becomes an auction. Highest bidder wins. The people who are buying have lots of money. This state is attracting rich people, typically highly educated in lucrative professions. And those people who bought something don't really want the prices to drop. They just made a big investment, and rising prices help them. Further, just building a ton of new buildings will just make traffic worse.

There is no solution. Conceivably the legislature could force more construction on local towns, but that won't work for long because homeowners all over the state don't want more construction in their towns. "Small towns are part of the charm of Massachusetts!" People who own, and have fixed mortgages WANT the prices to go up.

It sucks, its not getting worse. And its all mostly because Massachusetts is great: great education, great healthcare, great environment... For those who have a house, they don't care about the people who say "but I cannot afford to live here!" that's someone else's problem.

It only really becomes a home owner's problem when they cannot afford someone to provide cheap services for them.

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IntelligentCicada363 t1_j4qe655 wrote

We can build the homes we need without high rises. We can build the homes we need without giant box apartment buildings. Has anyone ever walked around the South End with the brick row homes, or the upper west side in manhattan, and thought it was ugly?

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People fetishize neighborhoods like that, but they are illegal. Illegal, illegal, illegal.

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internetTroll151 t1_j4s4lyl wrote

Not exactly a growing state.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/states-losing-population

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MadstopSnow t1_j4s8ntt wrote

Correct. It's not growing because we have somewhat fixed housing.

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internetTroll151 t1_j4sgnu8 wrote

So not everyone wants to live here.

Stagnant population yet housing still goes up. There are other factors

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