That argument came from market leaders at Bisnow's Boston Office and Workplace event on May 19, held at the Blue Sky Center in Burlington. Q1 2026 vacancy ticked up to 18.5% — a number that, taken at face value, looks like a market still in trouble. But Cushman & Wakefield's own data shows that eight of Boston's 19 office submarkets either held steady or improved in the quarter. Class A absorption has been positive for two straight quarters. The 7.6 million square feet of leasing activity in 2025 was the highest since 2022.

On May 7, the City of Providence filed suit against Audubon Capital Partners — a Boston-based private equity real estate firm — alleging the firm used algorithmic pricing software to drive rents at a 59-unit Jewelry District building (95 Lofts) up by as much as 44%. It's the first enforcement action under Providence's May 2025 ordinance banning algorithmic rent-setting.

A Boston condo buyer in 2026 is making two purchases at once, and most are only looking at one.

The first purchase is the unit. That number is on Zillow. It is negotiable. It is also, increasingly, the smaller of the two financial commitments you are about to make.

The second purchase is a 30-year subscription to a condominium association's budget, with mandatory monthly payments, mandatory special assessments, and zero ability to opt out short of selling the unit. That second purchase is what is currently breaking buyers in older Boston buildings, and the listing price tells you nothing about it.

On January 29, 2026, the Massachusetts Attorney General did something that hadn't happened before in a state usually allergic to municipal confrontation: she sued nine towns at once.

Dracut. East Bridgewater. Halifax. Holden. Marblehead. Middleton. Tewksbury. Wilmington. Winthrop. All of them stand accused of refusing to do what 165 of 177 designated MBTA Communities have now done — adopt a single multifamily zoning district near transit, as required by a 2021 law signed by a Republican governor.

There are roughly 15,000 triple-deckers in Boston. They are not pretty. They are not new. They are not what the YIMBY crowd points to when arguing for the housing future the city actually needs — Ed Glaeser has gone on the record arguing that what worked for 1900-era Boston is not what 2026 Boston needs.

In 2025, the average Boston driver spent 83 hours stuck in traffic. That's more than two full work weeks of your life. Gone. Sitting still. The wasted time cost each driver about $1,529 in fuel and lost productivit

Boston is 53% more expensive than the national average. The median home sale price last month sat at $860,000. The average apartment rent crossed $3,600. A family of four needs roughly $110,000 a year just to live comfortably.

Here's the conversation I'm having ten times a week in 2026: "Should I buy in Cambridge or stretch into Somerville instead?" Or the inverse: "I love Somerville, but Cambridge prices have gotten so wild that the gap doesn't feel real anymore — what am I missing?

 Let me give it to you straight: Dorchester is still the single best place in Greater Boston to buy your first multi-family — if you know which block to buy on. The median Boston home price has crossed $837,000. The share of renter households in Greater Boston who can afford an entry-level home has been cut in half over the past five years. And yet, every week, our team closes Dorchester triple-deckers at prices that would buy a tired two-bedroom in Cambridge.

Most Boston condo buyers spend three weekends touring units and ten minutes reviewing the association documents. That ratio is backwards, and it costs people six figures every year