Boston Mayor Marty Walsh recently released his first official housing plan. The report calls for more developers of middle-class housing projects and includes several strategies for attracting them, such as property tax incentives and land deals. 

The local administration hopes to spur more construction of middle-class housing based on recent real estate trends. According to...

Although it may be easy to understand the desire to preserve historical structures, disagreements can arise in their classification. In the context of land use and zoning, such efforts may impose a height restriction on skyscrapers or other commercial development projects. 

Yet zoning is but one potential issue facing commercial developers. Some commentators question whether...

Although zoning laws may sometimes get in the way of a commercial developer's brainstorming and design ideas, they are the law. Yet a recent article suggests that not every property developer may be held to the same standard. 

If that sounds unfair to readers, there's a good reason: A lot of money can be at...

In a recent post, we examined some of the ways that the commercial real estate market has responded to foreclosures. In some cases, the events have provided an investment opportunity. A real estate investment trust, or REIT, is another example of how investors might obtain foreclosed properties. A REIT is a type of real estate...

Have the guidelines for buying residential or commercial real property changed in the wake of the housing and foreclosure crisis? A recent article calls for greater caution. For example, conventional wisdom held that a home is a safe investment option. At a minimum, real estate ownership was considered more financially beneficial in the long term...

In an age of convenience and technology, it’s perhaps no surprise that real estate professionals are trying a new paperless approach to real estate transactions. The process utilizes new cloud-based storage technology. Around 3,000 real estate offices now use a platform called Dotloop. Agents with accounts can access mortgage documents, deeds, titles, or other transactional...

Although many aspects of the housing industry were affected after the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008, some commercial real estate companies responded by buying foreclosed properties in bulk. That institutional buying is credited with helping home prices to rise in many distressed markets.

Yet the market for such purchases and...

Although readers might assume that condo prices would move in tandem with the local residential real estate market, a recent report from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors indicates otherwise.

Whereas the market for single-family homes in Massachusetts appears to be slowing, condo prices continue to rise. In April, median condo prices rose to $319,000, almost...

The Boston Globe recently announced that it is exploring sale options for its 16.5-acre headquarters on Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Not surprisingly, the newspaper has wisely enlisted the assistance of a commercial real estate firm.

In this case, the property’s value is estimated by conservative standards to be at least $21 million. More generous...

Readers of this real estate law blog may have conflicted feelings about construction in the name of progress. On the one hand, readers probably appreciate efforts to preserve historical buildings. Such efforts may have both financial and historical benefit. Boston’s historic district, for example, is a top destination for tourists to Massachusetts. 

But what about...