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Maxpowr9 t1_ja8cxqx wrote

Reply to comment by Quirky_Butterfly_946 in ‘A housing market for almost no one’: Rising prices and interest rates have made home buying feel impossible - The Boston Globe by uxd

The boomers ironically will have priced themselves out of the GBA once they retire since they blocked so much housing being built that could have been for them.

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therealcmj t1_ja8fell wrote

There was a news piece a while back about boomers being upset that there were no smaller apartments and homes in their towns that they could down size into.

And I got to literally laugh out loud at them facing the consequences of their own actions and voting behavior. Before I was sad again about how fucked the housing market is for everyone.

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vhalros t1_ja9dmj3 wrote

I think it was this one (or some similar one): https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/07/29/metro/market-badly-out-kilter-many-older-residents-are-stuck-their-homes/

Yeah, the article kind of missed that smaller units were mostly illegal.

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pancakeonmyhead t1_jad7yqq wrote

I've heard multiple stories from people who bought a building in Somerville or Cambridge (this goes back to the '90s) and find that part of the building had illegally been converted into a mother-in-law apartment or that there was an illegal unit added into somewhere like a basement or an attic.

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vhalros t1_jad8a7k wrote

Yeah, the basement of my current home in Somerville definitely had an illegal apartment in it a some point. There are still remnants of tile from a bathroom.

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pointycube t1_jaaqa12 wrote

This is my mom. I've tried explaining it to her, she just gets mad. I've given up.

At the same time she's been bitching for months now about the two single-family homes going up across the street from her house "because it is too dense".

Boomers gonna boom.

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Cameron_james t1_ja8p0vh wrote

The other issue with this is that because they can't downsize they will stay in housing that is too big. This will keep homes from reaching the market...and the cycle worsens.

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Maxpowr9 t1_ja8v6hu wrote

See the tax break Healy is suggesting for said seniors. Will only make the housing market worse.

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AboyNamedBort t1_ja93cdg wrote

Yeah, I don't get giving seniors a break on property taxes. Old people own all the damn property. Give young people who own nothing a break. If an old person is struggling to pay property taxes then they bought something they couldn't afford. They can get a roommate to help pay expenses. That is what they tell young people to do.

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bobby_j_canada t1_ja9fiz2 wrote

It's because your local city councilors and state representatives get 74 calls per week from retired senior citizens and 6 calls per week from young people trying to start a family.

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Maxpowr9 t1_ja94sq9 wrote

Or have their adult kids move in with them to help pay bills.

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Cameron_james t1_ja966o4 wrote

Many seniors do live with family or with roommates in a "retirement home." Those are things that already happen.

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