Exploring Real Estate Trends: Market Insights, Top Living Spots, and Housing Initiatives

On today’s program, we examine the real estate market place.  Rosemary Comrie of Comrie Real Estate looks at the Metro West area.   Patrick Sylvester Senior vice president at Leader Bank discusses mortgage demand. Brittany Jasnoff , executive editor of Boston Magazine talks about the 15 best places to live in the metro area. Greg Ryan Senior reporter Boston Business Journal explains a new housing initiative by the Wu administration and finally Paul Nedzwiecki CEO Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce previews the summer season.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the New England Business Report with Joe short
Sleeve and Kim Carrigan, a weekly round up in discussion
of the top business news impacting our New England economy.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to this edition of the
New England Business Report. I'm Kim Carrigan along with Joe
short Sleeve. It is Sunday, March the thirtieth of the
last Sunday in March.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Wow, how do we get here?

Speaker 4 (00:22):
Huh? But I bet you're glad we are here. Rad
Socks are playing. Come on, you know we're moving. We're
moving and groving.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
We are moving, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
I do want to, you know, sort of set the
backdrop Joe for today's show because in the last couple
of weeks we've been talking a lot about the economy.
Because everybody's talking about the economy. I mean, that really
is the headline. And I know that you saw this
this week, but I think it's worth mentioning again. The
consumer confidence numbers dropped in the month of March, down

(00:54):
from to ninety two point nine. That was a seven
point two decline and the fourth consecutive month that they
have contracted. It turned out that economists were sort of
looking for a ninety three point five number, so it's
down even lower than what economists, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Had anticipated.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
So having said that, Joe, I think it's a great
backdrop for what it is that we want to focus
on this morning.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Real estate. I mean, you know, it all trickles down
and we're seeing it in all sectors. I'm sure, so absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
I think we've sort of learned that real estate is
what It's one of those indicators on the ground that
tells you how the economy is doing. So coming up
first this morning, we're going to speak with a realtor,
Rosemary Comriy.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Rosemary has been with us before.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
She is the head of Comrie real Estate out in
the western part of the state. And Rosemary is going
to update us on, you know, just the whole real
estate scene here in the Bay State and what's important
when we head into this spring market, which is sort
of underway right now really getting started.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
Rosemary is Metro West. I'm sure you meant to say Sudbury, Marlborough, Whalen, Framingham, Hopington,
Maynard Stowe, husband in Southborough. And it's going to be
curious because I know also this morning we're going to
hear about the mortgage industry and they say it's a
lot of first time buyers are the ones getting those mortgages.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Absolutely, So that just leads us into our next guest,
Patrick Sylvester. He's senior vice president Capital Markets at Leaderbank.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
He's going to join us. We'll talk to him about
mortgage rates, where they stand.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
You know, this has been a roller coaster, Joe, that
has had huge, you know, ups and downs and then
a few little bumps along the way. So we'll just
sort of get a sense of the landscape and where
we stand there.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
Yeah, Well, Patrick's with Leaderbank and my brother is with
Leader Bank, Connor short Sleeven. I'm surprised talking to him
the other day he was saying that there are still
bidding wars going on. I guess, I guess I sort
of thought that that had eased, and that you know,
mortgage rates were up and inventory was up and that
wasn't happening, But I guess it still is.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Let me ask you a question, Joe. In your neighborhoods,
are you seeing a lot of houses for sale?

Speaker 4 (03:07):
No?

Speaker 2 (03:07):
I'm not either. No, No, I'm not so, which I
think is sort of curious.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
So also in the second half of the program. Well,
here's a headline, folks, if you go to Cape Cod,
the National Transportation Safety Board says they put the sagamore
in the Boorde Bridge as a risk to collapse. Are
you listening? Why life? So anyway, they're on this list

(03:35):
on this you know, near the anniversary of the Baltimore
Bridge which fell down. But anyway, we want to be
talkingbout Paul needs Wicki he's the CEO and president of
the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, get the latest status
on the replacement of the Cape Cod bridges, and we'll
also ask him about the well summer twenty twenty five
is heading our way and what does that look like,
both vacation rentals and so on and so forth. Then

(03:55):
Greg Ryan will be along at the Boston Business Journal.
He of course, is a senior reporter there keeping us
up to speed. One thing he's going to talk about
is this new housing initiative by the WU administration, basically
trying to encourage colleges and hospitals to look at these

(04:17):
empty office buildings. Is housing? Okay?

Speaker 3 (04:19):
So all comes back to the real estate, doesn't it.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, that's why we're spending an hour on it today. Folks,
get the note pad out, start taking the notes here
and then finally we're in a close Today's program with
the executive editor of Boston magazine, Britney Jazznof. She recently
penned an article the top fifteen places to Live in
Greater Boston for twenty twenty five. And I'll admit you
right now, I had a selfish reason for this, as

(04:46):
my town of Midfield made it into the top ten.
And you know what we're walking about it there, I got.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
To tell you.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
And apparently nobody wants to sell their house there, right
because it's a great place to live.

Speaker 4 (04:57):
Yeah. Yeah, So there's a lot going on. We'll hear
from Brittany jazz off of a Boston magazine. All right,
let's get this real estate conversation started with somebody who
knows a thing or two about that, a real expert
out there out there in the trenches, as they say,
Rosemary Comrie of Commery Real Estate out there in Metro West.
Rosemary's she's a president CEO of her own firm out there,

(05:19):
and they cover properties in Sudbury, Marlborough, whaland Framingham, Hopington
on the list goes on and on. She's number forty
out of thirty five thousand reelders. That's a pretty good number, Rosemary,
welcome to the program. Everybody's wondering if and when we're
going to have a normal spring market, and what is
that anymore? What is a normal spring market and what's

(05:41):
happening Rosemary?

Speaker 5 (05:43):
Oh boy, oh boy, Well thanks for having me. I
don't think we've had a normal spring market since pre COVID.
Right now, the early spring market that we're in, I
can tell you it's hot, it's fast, and it's competitive.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
Really it still is. I mean we hear that rates
are up and inventory is up, and no, yes, yes.

Speaker 6 (06:10):
You're absolutely right. In Middlesex County where I practice, inventory
believe it or not, is up twenty eight percent year
over year. In twenty fourteen, at this point we had
about five hundred and fifty eight listings.

Speaker 5 (06:24):
Now we have seven hundred and sixteen. It's still really
not enough. Even with the mortgage rates a little bit higher,
though people are looking for long term equity plays. The
I'm going to say, you know, a lot of the
buyers that I'm working with, they don't want to pay

(06:45):
somebody else's rent. And right now in like Middlesex County,
an average two bedroom is renting for about twenty eight
to fifty a month. In my town, Studbury, a two
bedrooms renting for about forty two ten a month. These
people want to start putting their money again towards long
term equity plans, and I don't blame them.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
So are we seeing you know, bidding wars going on
or have we passed that stage?

Speaker 5 (07:12):
We are you guys? This past weekend I put were
pass Last week I put three houses on the market,
two of which are under agreement with multiple offers over
their asking prices. I did submit an offer and act
in for a young family, and that particular house had

(07:32):
nine o offers. The listing broker told us that I
think every one other than out of the nine eight
were over asking and I think that house went one
hundred thousand dollars over its asking price. Well, okay, yeah,
it's disheartening.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
Yeah it is. And they are you dealing with buyers
who are disheartened?

Speaker 5 (07:56):
Oh yes I am. And I'm also telling them that
it's just a matter of time and when they least
expect it expected, But they need to be really clever.
They have to work with. You know, agents that you know,
know the terrain, know all of the players. They have
to have fabulous mortgage brokers. I have a mortgage broker

(08:17):
at Leader which is Boston based bank, that is helping
my buyers win deals. They have this program that within
two weeks Leader Bank can get a buyer from offer
to closing. That's really reassuring for a seller. If the
buyer can't wait of financing to hook up with an

(08:37):
amazing mortgage broker like I have from Leader Bank. That's
guy named Connor, it makes a difference. It'll help you
win the house that you want to live in for
the next twenty years.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
We actually have someone from Leader Bank having on a
little later in the show, so that was quite the
endorsement for them.

Speaker 4 (08:54):
That was very well and I just referenced my brother Connor.
So good job, Roseen.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
That's yeah, very good. All right, job check this way, Roseberry.
Let me ask you a double question here. First off,
who are these potential buyers out there? And what is
what's the price range that seems to be really hot
right now?

Speaker 5 (09:15):
The price range? Okay, so good question, all right, So
I would say, you know, majority of buyers are going
to be anywhere from the majority, probably thirty five to fifty.
That is, you know, kind of for Metro West, your
core buyer group. However, you know, considering that twenty eight

(09:37):
percent of the population right now is fifty five and older,
there's a fair amount of those folks that are looking
to sell the big house and get into properties with
one level living. Specifically, two price ranges that are hot
in Metro West. If you're between four and say six

(09:57):
hundred thousand, and you're in good shape and your priced appropriately,
you're probably going to have six offers. Another super hot
price range is eight hundred to about one point two
super hot. Again, if you're priced appropriately, the bones of
the house are good, the locations pass decent, you're going

(10:18):
to have multiple offers. It is a in Metro West.
It's a seller's market.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
Talk to us about days on the market in terms
of I think that's always a good indicator of what
the market place is saying. Our houses staying on the
market longer, because I mean, it sounds like they aren't well.

Speaker 5 (10:41):
The ones that again are priced appropriately, are usually going
within the first couple of days with a few offers.
The ones that are maybe in need of severe care
and not priced that way. They're going to sit on
the market right now. In Metro Metro West or Middlesex County,

(11:03):
average days on market is twenty nine. But I would
say that twenty nine days on market might reflect some
of the newer construction stuff that unfortunately stretch our days
on market out. So yeah, things are going really really fast.
Buyers have to respond quickly and aggressively.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
What about first time home owners?

Speaker 2 (11:28):
You know, I mean, it seems like a tough market
for young people to get into.

Speaker 5 (11:33):
It's really tough. I mean, I would say at this point,
the first time homeowners are spending between at least three
to six hundred thousand. You almost can't find anything under
three hundred thousand. Condominians are even getting hard to find
under three hundred. And there are so many first time

(11:54):
home buyers, Okay, they're trying to at this point get
out of mom and Dad's base men, and so there's
tons of competition. So you know what I'm telling, these
guys are it. You know, it doesn't matter if it
takes us one try to get a house or six,
it's going to happen. But you just have to be patient,

(12:16):
and you have to set your expectations so you don't
psyche yourself out, Roseved, do you.

Speaker 4 (12:23):
Have a particular story that you want to share with
our listeners about that illustrates this spring market of twenty
twenty five?

Speaker 6 (12:30):
Oh God, a particular story?

Speaker 5 (12:32):
Well, I can. I can tell you about a fifty
five and older condominium that I put on the market.
There's been not a lot of inventory in that marketplace.
I took a beautiful listing a townhouse fifty five and older,
thought that we would have really a positive response to it.

(12:55):
I didn't realize how positive the response was going to be.
With multiple offers and sold that property something like seventy
thousand dollars over a tasking price with no home inspections
and no mortgage.

Speaker 7 (13:11):
So.

Speaker 5 (13:13):
Different price ranges, we're seeing different things. All in all,
I'm hopeful that with some of the financing tools, with
adjustable rates and stuff like that, people who will really
feel like they can jump in and make it happen
for themselves. And again, with inventory up twenty eight percent,

(13:35):
that's encouraging for buyers, so it's not all bad for buyers.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
All right. Well, she's Rosemary Comery of Comery real Estate,
and we do appreciate you taking time in joining us
on the New England Business Support on this Sunday morning.
Up next, we're going to talk to some of those
folks at Leader Bank about mortgage rates and mortgage demand.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston w RKO six eighty. Joe and
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Speaker 3 (16:18):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan.

Speaker 4 (16:20):
And I'm Joe Shortsley. If you want to be part
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Speaker 3 (16:27):
You can email us at Any Business Radio at gmail
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Speaker 4 (16:32):
That's Any Business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
Welcome back everyone.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
Well, as we mentioned off the top of the show, Joe,
you know, real estate sales are so dictated by lending rates,
which of course have been changing, you know, like the
weather for the last couple of years. I'm here to
discuss that a little bit more East. Patrick Sylvester, he
is senior vice president Capital Markets at the Leader Bank
and it's always.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
Great to have you with us. Patrick.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Let's get started just talking about interest rates right now,
and maybe you could give us a full synopsis of
what we've been watching and seeing over the last couple
of years.

Speaker 7 (17:19):
Yeah. Thanks, Kim and Joe. Great to be on with
you guys again. Thanks for having me. Yeah, as you mentioned,
it has been a challenging run for the last few
years for mortgage rates. Certainly everybody loved the ultralow rates
during the pandemic, but coming out of that now for
the last couple of years, we've really been in a
range of six to seven percent for mortgage rates and

(17:40):
kind of settled in there. So it's definitely a different
affordability picture given where mortgage rates are than what we
saw five years ago in the housing market.

Speaker 4 (17:49):
But it doesn't seem to have hurt demand.

Speaker 7 (17:51):
Patrick, Yeah, that's been one of the amazing things, especially
in the greater Boston market here, so many additional strengths
and so much demand from buyers. Despite the affordability challenges.
With interest rates being higher and home prices continuing to rise,
transactions just continue to chug right along.

Speaker 5 (18:10):
You know.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
We saw the consumer Confidence index this past week though,
and it is down. Are you concerned that that's going
to start to, you know, erode that demand.

Speaker 7 (18:21):
Yeah, that was big news that came out. The University
of Michigan sentiments in ten percent in February from January.
Part of that you know, that is a nationwide survey,
and I think the local job market and overall economy,
it is kind of insulated in the Boston region with
so many strengths compared to nationwide. But yeah, that definitely

(18:42):
plays into it, and it does affect interest rates nationwide
as expectations amongst Americans for things like inflation and what
will happen with tariffs and overall labor market and unemployment
rates kind of will play into appetites out there and
adjust interest rates. As you had mentioned, you know, all

(19:04):
over the place.

Speaker 4 (19:05):
Talking with Patrick Sylvester, Senior Vice President, Leader Bank about
the mortgage industry as we move into the spring of
twenty twenty five. Here, let's talk a little bit about
one of the interesting stats that you shared with us
and has to do with first time home buyers. And
the statue shared is that fifty percent, fifty percent of
the purchase transaction in March were first time home buyers.

(19:28):
I mean, I don't know. Something about that really really
struck me. And it's because given given how expensive things
are at this point and interest rates, I mean, tell
me about that number.

Speaker 7 (19:39):
Yeah, we were super proud of that number. Or actually
about fifty five percent of March purchase transactions so far
as you're for us our first time home buyers, and
that's awesome, you know, to be able to help out
that many first time home buyers. That's up from about
forty percent just a couple of years ago, so significant

(19:59):
in increase. We really work hard to have products and
offerings out there to be able to help first time
home buyers and really seeing the first of that.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
So talk to us a little bit about some of
the numbers. I know you guys have had some real
good things happening there at Leader Bank. You're seeing strong
growth in those purchase transactions. Give us the actual numbers
as compared to a year ago.

Speaker 7 (20:22):
Yeah, we're seeing we're up about forty percent year over year,
which is great to continue to see that. We knew
it's going to be a challenging market this year. We've
added some additional staffing on the sales side to help
reach out to buyers in the market and additionally seen

(20:42):
some a little bit of relief this year with interest
rates as well come down a bit since the start
of the year. And also one of the things we tracked,
you know, the yield curve and seeing the change of
short term rates versus long term rates, and it's normal
a bit more in this current environment than we've seen

(21:02):
in previous years, and that's opened up some additional arm
interest rate products for buyers that can help out with affordability,
and that's really helped to drive a lot of the
purchase growth.

Speaker 6 (21:14):
For US this year.

Speaker 4 (21:15):
Patrick Kim and I spent last week's show talking about
the economic uncertainty as part of our economy, and you know,
I guess you're seeing it. We're seeing in a lot
of places. Obviously. I mean, obviously it starts with those
trade wars and the tariffs. And you hear the car dealers.
You know, people don't want to buy a car right now.
People are worried about their jobs. Where are you seeing
the uncertainty in the mortgage marketplace?

Speaker 12 (21:37):
Yeah, that's huge.

Speaker 7 (21:39):
The tariff piece that you've mentioned is a big driver
of potential pressure on inflation. And if the Federal Reserve
teas inflation kick up from you know, it's been trending
down towards their goal over the last few years, but
if they see that kick up, you know, that could
adjust what the Federal Reserve does for or interest rates,

(22:01):
which would drive mortgage rates. Yeah, it's huge right now.
One of the things we watch is the spread of
average thirty year fifth rate over the ten year treasury
and prior to the pandemic that was only about one
hundred and fifty basis points pretty consistently for five years
leading up to the pandemic, and with all the uncertainty,

(22:22):
as you mentioned right now, that's about one hundred basis
points higher than that. So the uncertainty is really holding
interest rates up higher than they sort of should be.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Patrick.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
Obviously, we all saw in the month of March the
FED meeting and making the decision they'd hold tight. What
do you guys at Leader Bank hope to see the
Fed do over the course of twenty twenty five.

Speaker 7 (22:45):
Yeah, they're in a wait and see approach, which I
agree with from our perspective. It would be great to
get some sort of clarity on exactly what they're looking
for in economic numbers in order to ideally make that
next rate cut and continue the pass for bringing rates
down to make you know, home ownership more affordable. But

(23:07):
I agree that there's so much uncertainty out there with
all of the potential tariffs and trade war and where
the employment rate goes, but SI clarity from the Fed
I think would be ideal from our.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
Respective Patrick, do you track you know, real estate sales
so to speak. I mean obviously you're doing you're lending
money on the mortgages and you got all these first
time buyers. I guess my question is where are you
seeing strength in the regional marketplace geography in terms of
where are people buying?

Speaker 7 (23:37):
Yeah, our main market is in Middlesex County and we're
seeing listenings are increasing from the start of the year
in Middlesex County and also Norfolk and Suffolk County. Unfortunately,
it's kind of on paced with where listings were at
this time last year as well. So hoping that the
warmer weather starting to hit around here, we'll bring more

(24:01):
homes on the market.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
Now that's spring market. It is so important to everyone. Patrick,
thank you so much for your insight. Very much appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
Today.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Okay, up next, we're going to travel down to the
Cave for a spring summer economic forecast, and we're also
going to talk about those bridges. You know, Joe brought
us some great news earlier. They're on a list of
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Speaker 3 (24:29):
This is the New England Business Report.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Kim and Joe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return.

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That's Any Business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.
And welcome back to the New England Business Report. On
this Sunday morning on March the thirtieth. We're spending this

(27:19):
hour while talking about their real estate market here in Massachusetts,
New England and beyond. And here's something that to think about.
You know, you buy a home, you need insurance, right Well,
Greg Ryan, a senior reporter at the BBJ, who's going
to be our guest on the program today, spend a
couple of interesting articles. One is this headline Island homeowners

(27:43):
find themselves in a bind over insurance. Yeah, well, I
mean this is not surprising, right, this has been this
has been happening for years. But the numbers down there
on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are getting a little little tight.
And twenty twenty three, insurance carriers did not renew almost
twelve percent of homeowners policies. Only two US counties with

(28:05):
at least a thousand policies had a higher non renewal rate.
But you know what, Kim, I say, if you can
afford a home on Nantucket, are you really worried about
the insurance on the homeandholders insurance?

Speaker 3 (28:16):
Well, I understand what you're saying for sure.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
I got to tell you, though, this is just a
result of these hurricanes and all of these things that
have been happening across the country. We've talked about this before, Joe.
When we see these big hurricanes, you know in the
Carolinas down in Florida, we up here may not be
feeling the wrath of that hurricane, but ultimately we'll feel
the wrath of it through insurance rates.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
Oh yeah, no question about it. It says the typical
annual premium on Nantucket in twenty twenty three was six
thousand dollars, or double what it was five years earlier.
And to Kim's point, this whole idea, non renewal levels
on the vineyard in Nantucket rival those in such places
as Florida and California, which have been slammed with hurricanes

(29:01):
and wildfires. But it's been Greg Ryan Wright, it's been
thirty four years since a hurricane hit the islands directly. Well,
our next guest, I'm guessing knows a thing or two
about getting a homeowner's insurance policy down on Cape Cod.
And you know, maybe he knows a good agent, you know, Kim,
maybe maybe maybe you nook some people up talking about
Paul Ned's WICKI he's the CEO and president of the

(29:23):
Cape Cod Chamber of Commerceas regular visitor here in the
New England Business Report, We've got a lot to talk
to him about today. Paul, Welcome to the program. But
what's your reaction to this story that is on the
BBJ about how the folks on the islands are having
such a hard time getting homeowners insurance.

Speaker 12 (29:40):
It's a big problem, and it's really sort of a
hidden problem. You know, it's climate change that's infecting people now.
I mean, both of the islands are in those county
categories ten thousand active policies or less than that December
report for ten thousand or more. All of Barnsiboo County
ranks three in the nation for potentially losing homeowners insurance.
So it's a big problem. To work with the kit
Cut Climate Collaborative to look at things like a Catastrophic

(30:04):
Insurance Fund. There are other ways to keep insurance companies
active on the cake, you know.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
Ned Joe said something earlier which I did sort of
agree with, and that's that.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Own a home.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
If you own a home over on Nantucket, do you
really have to have insurance?

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Can you be self insured?

Speaker 2 (30:21):
But I'm sure there are a lot of other places
there on Nantucket that need that insurance.

Speaker 12 (30:27):
Yeah, I know there are a lot. In Barnsible County,
only sixty five percent of the homes are insured, you know,
and even of those that are insured, some a lot
of them are only partially insured because they're only required
to carry insurance for the balance of mortgage that they
have on it. So you have a lot of two
hundred thousand dollars insurance policies one million dollar homes. So
it's a big problem twenty twenty three on the Vineyard.

(30:49):
I mean, more than one out of every ten homeowner
insurance policy for lost. And so we have teachers now
that have to sell their homes over there because they
can't afford to self ensure, and they're selling it to
people with disposable income. And so if that Category five
hurricane does hit, you have to ask whether we were
becoming a disposable area.

Speaker 4 (31:11):
We're talking with Paul Edswikie. He is the CEO of
the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and Paul, I know
tho's that's a great topic. But let's move on because
this other topic is really the reason that Kim and
I reached out, and this is the headline in the
Cape Cod Times. Born Sagamore bridges could be at risk
of collapse. NTSB report warns really.

Speaker 12 (31:36):
Well, they need to be looked at from a navigational perspective,
just like the Francis Scott Keybridge in Baltimore. You know,
the ship ran right into one of the bridge supports
and the bridge collapsed. So they're looking at similar structures
around the country that might be at risk. And both
Born In Sagamore across the Federal Navigable Waterway in the

(31:59):
Cape God Canal, as the Tobyn Bridge does as well,
So they're going to look at all of those bridges.
I mean, we feel pretty good about what the inspection
is going to say on the other side for the
Born In Sagamore because the channels are cut deeper so
that any ship traveling through the canal would actually run
aground before it could strike to bridge support. But you know,

(32:21):
it just highlights the importance of both bridge bridges, and
you know it brings these possible risks of bridge closures
to the forefront. You know a lot of people think
that bridge closure isn't likely to happen, but you know
it's more possible than what most people think.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
Why don'd you update us, having said all of that,
on where we stand here with the funding and getting
these bridges fixed.

Speaker 9 (32:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (32:48):
No, the funding for Sagamore is in place. The environmental
review process for both bridges is underway. We probably have
another twelve to eighteen months left in that environmental review process,
and then the Sagamore project will go out forbid. So
the state seems to be doing a really good job
sort of putting this together. They've brought on Luisa Payawanski,
who's now has the best job title in state government,

(33:11):
the executive director of Megaprojects. She's been in touch and
working with us closely, and so we expect that the
construction on Sagamore could begin early twenty twenty eight.

Speaker 4 (33:23):
That's where it starts. Yeah, okay, and then when are
we driving over and.

Speaker 12 (33:29):
There's two structures are going to replace the single structure,
so you have one sort of structure coming on Cape,
one structure going off Cape, so that first bridge will
be operational before demolition of the old bridge and the
construction of the second span. They're conservatively estimating that each
bridge will take seven to ten years, but they are

(33:50):
using a design build process which should move it faster,
and we really won't know on the timing until there's
been a contractor selected to build it.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
What's so the best yes is seven years plus twenty
twenty eight. What you're saying is that thirty five starting in.

Speaker 12 (34:05):
Twenty twenty eight, so probably we're probably talking twenty thirty
thirty one before there's a new bridge to drive over
avent for.

Speaker 4 (34:13):
And in the meantime, you know, we don't have any
answers about the Bourn.

Speaker 12 (34:17):
We don't have any funding for the Bourn just yet.
So you know, we're working the chambers put together Capean
Island's Bridge Coalition. So we've got about fifty organizations and
individuals that are built on the ABC model in Boston,
a better city model, and are following the project. So
we are looking and trying to push the state towards

(34:39):
the discussion about how to fund the second bridge, but
there have been no final decisions made about funding for
the born to date.

Speaker 3 (34:45):
All right, Paul, we could keep you here all day.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
We want to chat with you before our time is up,
about what you're anticipating for twenty twenty five. When they're
on the cape, when you look around, how are rentals
and and vacation plans coming along?

Speaker 12 (35:03):
Well, the genuine and February have been off. The occupancy
has been off by about fourteen fifteen percent, which is
a pretty significant number. But you know, there aren't aren't
a lot of rooms that are in play in those months. This,
you know, may looks like it's ticking up a little
bit over last year. June in July looks strong, but

(35:23):
August looks a little weak. So we're starting to see
booking windows get shorter and we're starting to see some
softness in the peak season months coming up this year.
So we expect that occupancy will be down a little bit,
not significantly, but will certainly be down over compared to

(35:44):
last year.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
So what does Paul and EDSWICKI do about that?

Speaker 12 (35:47):
Well, we're trying to diagnose exactly what the reason for
any sort of softness, and part of it is traveling.
Tourism was the number one industry impacted during the pandemic,
but the KEIP did really well because we are a
second home owner community, we're not really a resort community,
so we had banner summers of twenty one, twenty two

(36:08):
really into twenty three, so this is sort of normalizing.
So we're using what will happen this year in benchmarking
it against some of the pre pandemic numbers. So we're
still in the growth pattern there, but you know, we're
trying to figure out whether this is a price correction
a market correction because given the travel restrictions coming out
of the pandemic, there was a lot of demand on

(36:29):
the Cape, so those average daily rates increased and was
really starting to produce an affordability issue in the hospitality
industry on the Cape, So they might be part of
a market correction. Could be consumer confidence has taken a
bit of a hit over the last couple of months
and so people are being a little bit more careful.
That could explain the booking windows shortening and the average

(36:51):
daily stay shortening up a little bit. But we could
be starting to feel the impact of you know, Canadian
visitors that have been very vale about the fact that
they're not going to come this year. And you know,
the Canadian market is number one in the top five
international markets for Cape Cod and for other visions in
the stakes.

Speaker 4 (37:10):
Wow, all right, Paul, before we go, can you use
your power to do anything about the sale of Baxter's
in Hyannas.

Speaker 12 (37:18):
I mean, you know, I was at the box of
town council meeting encouraging the town to take a look
at that, and they did appropriate on hundred FI two
thousand dollars visibility study. I hate to see it go.
I hate to see it. Yeah, you know, I guess
I'm powerless to do anything about it at this point.

Speaker 4 (37:37):
Well, we got to reach out to Sam Backstra. I
guess all right, all right, thanks. He's Paul Nedswickie and
he's the President CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Well, Joe, as we just mentioned, you know, down there
on the Capeon Islands, apparently there are some real issues
going on related to insurance. And we actually learned of
this from the senior reporter from the b J, Greg Ryan,
and he is joining us now. We want to talk
to him about that story as well as another that
he wrote. Just this past week. Greg, we talked to

(38:09):
Paul Nedswiki, the chamber head down there on the Cape.
He says that this is a real issue, this insurance
problem on the islands.

Speaker 14 (38:16):
Yeah, it's really remarkable, how you know, how much this
is a problem compared to places like you know, it's
right up there with places like California, in Florida and Louisiana.
That's the you know, hurricanes and wildfires and those sorts
of disasters. I mean, the insurance are declining to renew
policies on the islands, on the Vineyard in Nantucket at

(38:37):
a rate that is among the highest in the country.
I mean, premiums in Nantucket have more than doubled over
the past five years. That they increased, more than any
other county in the country. And so it's it's really
remarkable how much the insurance insurance market has changed on
the Cape, in the island just over the past few years.

(38:59):
Just fight you know, a lack of any major disaster.

Speaker 4 (39:03):
Yeah, and Greg, where's this going down there? I mean,
you know where doesn't sound like a happy ending.

Speaker 6 (39:09):
No.

Speaker 14 (39:10):
I spoke to a broker on the Vineyard who said,
you know, fifteen twenty years ago, you know, there was
a pool of around twenty five insurance carriers that he
could turn to for policies. Now it's fewer than ten.
I think you could see, you know, this is a
bit speculative, but I think you could see people relying
more and more on the fare Plan, the insurer of
last resort for people who can't find policies on the

(39:33):
private market. The issue there is that there's a one
million dollar limit on payouts from that policy, and for
a lot of homes on the cape in the island,
that's just not enough. So there may have to be
a legislative some legislative changes there. But it's going to
be an issue for years to come.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Yeah, this is a story we're all going to be
watching very closely. The senior reporter at the Boston Business Journal,
Greg Ryan, is our guest.

Speaker 4 (39:57):
This morning.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Gregor wrote another piece about Michelle Woo's propose will to
give tax breaks for office to residential conversions, and now
she's extending that to include students and the workforce for housing.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
Talk to us about what this means exactly.

Speaker 14 (40:13):
Yeah, so, you know, there have been a decent number
of applications. You know, close to a thousand units have
been proposed through this tax break program, but very few
have actually broken ground. In fact, there are only fifteen
units under construction in the city right now through this program.
So the mayor came out last week and said, you know,
we're going to expand this to student housing and workforce housing.

(40:35):
And the way that will work is for student housing,
university or a group of universities will partner with the developer.
The developer will we'll you know, convert a build an
office building into residential and then they'll you know, they'll
sind a the universities will kind of master lease with
the developer so that you know, students will be populating
the building every year. And talking to developers, they were

(40:57):
pretty optimistic about this because if you do that, you
have guaranteed tenants every year, right and two. One way
this differs from projects that have been in the pipeline
already is if you're housing students, you don't have to
provide any affordable housing, right, you don't have to provide
any income restricted housing, which helps with the financials on
these deals and actually starting construction and getting them to work.

Speaker 4 (41:20):
Talking with Greg Ryan Seendior Report of the Boston Business Journals.
So you're saying that building owners and developers are liking
this idea of standing in line or want to do it.

Speaker 14 (41:30):
Yes, the landlords and developers I spoke to, we're like
the idea. That doesn't necessarily mean we're going to see
a flood of projects. I don't think that. You know,
some of the same obstacles are still there. You know,
rates or you know, interest rates are still elevated. Construction
is still expensive in Boston. But this could this could
move the needles some on getting some more projects started.

(41:52):
And what's interesting is in talking to city officials and developers,
there apparently has been interest from hospitals in providing work
force housing. So hospitals, obviously they have a unique workforce,
they have traveling nurses, they have residents that can be fined.
It can be hard to find any sort of affordable
housing downtown. So they've apparently been in talks with the

(42:12):
city and with developers about partnering to provide housing in
these converted offices for their employees.

Speaker 12 (42:20):
So when we're.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Talking about tax breaks, what is what is that break?

Speaker 14 (42:24):
So it's it's a pretty significant break. It's under the program,
it's you get seventy five percent off your property taxes
for a period of almost thirty years, and you're also
paying a lower tax rate, right because the commercial tax
rate in the city is much higher than the residential
tax rate, So you're going down to the lower rate
by going to residential and then you're getting the seventy
five percent tax break. That sounds like a lot. It

(42:46):
is a lot on the tax side of things. But
what's prevented these projects from moving forward to date is
the construction is so expensive. Some of the regulations around
you know, providing twenty percent of portable housing cut into
financial returns. So even with that tax break, it has
been hard for projects to move forward.

Speaker 4 (43:06):
Yeah, I would guess as you talk about conversions here,
I mean, it's got to be really expensive. Never mind,
you know, the whole idea of building a new building,
at least you're building it, you know, to to somebody's
want or need. But to convert these offices and apartments,
I mean, I don't know, it does sound like quite
a hill decline.

Speaker 14 (43:26):
Yeah, it's it's complicated. You've got to look at you know,
the floor space on the floor plans where bathrooms are
going to go. There's sometimes a lot of you know,
empty space in the middle of the building if there's
large four floor plans, because you know, residents mean to
be near the windows, right and so yeah, I've heard it.
It is quite expensive and that you know that that's

(43:46):
been a big, big hurdle.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
Greg Ryan, We thank you so much for being a
guest this morning right here on the New England Business Report.
All right, still come in your way? Do you live
in one of the communities in this state that is
considered the best. We're going to let you know on
the other side of the break.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston WRKO six eighty Joe and Kim,
We'll be right back.

Speaker 10 (44:14):
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Are you a brother or a sister of one of
Greater Boston's local trade unions? And finally thinking about getting
ready to hang up your tools after thirty five years
of working your tailoff? Congratulations, you worked hard to build
your retirement nest egg.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
But now what?

Speaker 10 (46:28):
Let me help you break through the nonsense and financial
speak so we can get to the questions that are
important to you. As you know, nothing gets built without
a set of plans, and neither will you a financial future.
My name is Mike Marshall, President and CEO of Marshal Wealth,
Management and creator of the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive, customized
plan that will help you answer important questions in all

(46:49):
seven key areas. You don't have to do it alone.
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Well.

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Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
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FINRA SIPC, Lincoln Investment dot com. Marshall Wealth Management and
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Speaker 3 (47:19):
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Speaker 4 (48:03):
All right, you know this next interview is one that
I'm really looking forward to. Okay, Kim and I were
talking about this. Now, you you have these surveys that
come out all the time, you know, best places to live. Well,
I have a selfish interest in this one. Boston Magazine
just came out with their fifteen top places to Live
in Greater Boston for twenty twenty five, and you know what,

(48:24):
the town of Medfield has snuck into the top ten.
Now I'm a Medfield I had as many people know.
But I think it's a great place to start with
this because we're going to talk about the executive editor
of the Boston magazine, Britney Jasnof, And it's a great
little discussion because, Okay, how does this these fifteen towns out?
How do you rate them? How do they come to

(48:45):
this list? But you know, how does a town like Medfield,
you know, outstep Dover, Whalen Weston.

Speaker 6 (48:52):
Good morning, Brittany, good morning, Thank you for having me.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
Yeah, so take us through this.

Speaker 6 (48:58):
Yeah, absolutely, So you know we've been doing our top
places to live feature for as long as I've been
with the magazine, which is over seventeen years. But you know,
this is the first time that I'm aware of that
we've done an actual kind of statistical analysis of the
cities and towns that make up our readership area. It's
actually one hundred and forty one towns that we ranked

(49:19):
from one to one hundred and forty one, and we uh,
you know, we highlight our top fifteen in print and
then you can kind of see the whole ranking at
the end of our print issue and also at Boston
Magazine dot com.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
So what are these rankings based on, Brittany great question.

Speaker 6 (49:35):
So for this project, we worked in partnership with the
experts of the research company Data Joe, who determined the
rankings through their comprehensive city score system. And so what
we did was we, you know, for this our partners
because I'm in eight key categories that matter most to
home buyers. So I'll just go through those housing, safety, mobility,

(49:55):
which is obviously you know, the ability to get great
you know, walking and biking in town, healthcare, entertainment, community education,
and employment. And so using that system, the town you know,
they gathered the data, and then the town received ratings
of zero ten in each category, and then their final
position in the ranking was determined by a weighted average

(50:16):
across all of those categories.

Speaker 4 (50:18):
All right, talking with Britney Jazz Not, executive editor of
Boston magazine. All right, take us through the list. Who's
on the list, who's number one? Take us through it.

Speaker 6 (50:25):
Well, our top town was Cambridge, and I think there
are obvious reasons for that. It had really high scores
in housing and mobility. It's obviously very easy to get around,
you know, grad d and bus service, healthcare, entertainment. It's
scored high on education as well. I know, I believe
they just started offering universal pre K this year, which
was exciting for families in town. You know. It's also

(50:46):
hot ticket among millennials. It was recently named the number
two city in the country for millennials to relocate by
another publication. So that was so Cambridge is number one.
Number two was well Leave again, a great place, great
house options, excellent schools, very high score for safety. And
Brookline was ranked number three, you know, thanks to its

(51:06):
excellent mobility, entertainment, high education score. And then Newton and
Somerville rounded out our top five. I think overall, the
trend was that towns that had good you know, transportation,
good mobility, you know, and high scores and everything else
seemed to fare the best on this list.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
You know, Brittany, It does seem, though, that these are
all very high end towns and cities in Massachusetts, meaning
it's expensive to live in all of them.

Speaker 6 (51:31):
Yeah, I mean, I think part of that, you know,
and part of that cost is, you know, is the desirability.
You know, the more desirable the higher, the higher the cost.
But like I said, in the future, you know, I
think what makes the town great is really actually kind
of subjective, and you know, different people might be looking
for different things. And that's why we were transparent about
how a town rank in each of the eight categories,

(51:51):
so that readers can kind of evaluate towns on the
criteria that matters most to them. And I believe that
if you go on our website, you can actually sort
them by which town scored the highest in which criteria.
So if you're more interested in town that has great entertainments,
for example, you can look at it that way versus
other criteria.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
Sure.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
Yeah, well that brings me back to my original point.
About the town of Midfield, and I'm curious as to
how you rank these and the criteria that we use,
and and why would a town move up or down
your list. I guess the criteria would change.

Speaker 6 (52:24):
Yeah, I mean I think you know, like I said,
this is the first year we've actually done this ranking,
so you know, before it was more of a reported,
editorial driven kind of list, whereas this this is a
statistical analysis, and you know, based on data that we found,
you know, from the US Census, you know, Massachusetts Association
of Realtors, different sources like that, and we do have

(52:45):
that in our methodology, so you know, it just depends.
So they're ranked in relation to one another. So you know,
the Medfield score, I think they were ranked number eight
and scored very high in housing, very high in safety,
you know, high in education. So those were some of
the areas I think that that your town in particular,

(53:08):
was was excelling in for sure.

Speaker 4 (53:10):
All right, tell us what six, seven, uh, nine and
ten are?

Speaker 12 (53:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (53:15):
So six, seven, nine and ten. So we rounding out
those top ten, we have Needham Lexington at Mett Fields eight,
you know, with Weston and Arlington.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Okay, now we have to jump to the bottom. There's
one hundred and forty one cities and towns. Unfortunately, there
had to have been five to ten at the bottom
of this list.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Walk us through where what a few of those are.

Speaker 6 (53:41):
Yeah, so let's see, I can just list those off Totton, Middleborough, Punting, Corver,
and Halifax. Unfortunately, and I you know, I want to say,
of course there's nothing you know wrong with these towns,
just sort of how the data shook out in those cases.

Speaker 4 (53:57):
Do you get phone calls for they call you up, Brittany.

Speaker 6 (54:04):
I haven't done yet, but I know that people care.
That people are very excited when their town is RANKI
we do a top school list, which is similarly ranked,
you know, based on statistical analysis of you know, school
performance and uh and we definitely people are very passionate
about where there now kind of falls. And I think
it's a unsurprised when you when you are high up

(54:26):
like that. Sure exciting for the town.

Speaker 4 (54:28):
Absolutely. So what is the value of being on this list?
I mean real value? Real value to a community any
number of one of the communities that are in your
top fifteen. How do they use this data, this information?

Speaker 6 (54:41):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I can't I can't say
for sure, but I mean, you know, anecdotally, obviously it's
for real estate in the town. I mean, I think
it attracts people, right, you know. I mean if people
know that they have a great place, people are looking
for places to live, and they you know, want to
come to the top places in Massachusetts. So not only
and like I said before, it definitely is a sense
of pride for the people that live there, and that's

(55:04):
exciting for those people. But I think it also brings
new people in potentially, and and so I think that's
exciting too.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
Well.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
I just have one final question for you. It hearkens
back to what Joe was talking about. Midfield has moved
on the list. Was there anything? Was there another town
that moved in the top fifteen?

Speaker 6 (55:21):
Because this was the first time that we've done this
ranking where we had you know, the top towns kind
of ranked like that. I wouldn't be able to say that,
but I could tell you something surprising, something kind of
cool that our team at Data Joe did, which is
in the feature or the print feature. They did they
calculated for us also towns that offer kind of the

(55:42):
mode bang for your buck. So what they did was
they looked at the relatively low medium price at home prices,
which in this market is for better or worse under
a million, and you know, relatively high scores and all
other measures that we looked at. So we saw in
that kind of calculation, we saw some really great towns
right to the top with that meta trick, including Rock Franklin, Rockland, Wallpole,

(56:04):
and Sharon.

Speaker 5 (56:04):
We're in that list.

Speaker 4 (56:05):
Oh okay, that's a good place to be. Uh, all right,
what's next, Brittany? You got some someone else you're working
on you can tell our listeners about you.

Speaker 6 (56:14):
Oh yeah, we're really excited. We're gearing up for our
biggest issue of the year, which is our Best of
Boston feature and that includes editors picked some hundreds of
categories across the city's dining, shopping, wellness, entertainment and more.
So that'll be out towards the end of June, sarchially issue.

Speaker 7 (56:30):
Great.

Speaker 4 (56:30):
All right, jeez, The executive editor of Boston magazine Britney Jazz, Now,
thanks so much for joining us this morning on the
New England Business Report.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Well, Joe, I understand why you feel so strongly about
that whole subject, and I don't blame you one.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
Day, thank you, thank you, thank.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
You, lots of great places to live there messages, it's
two ways about it, all right. That's going to do
it for this edition of the New England Business Report.
So glad i'll you could be with us on this
Sunday morning. Coming up next Sunday, a subject that I
think is really fascinating, you know, Joe. Thanks to the
fact that we have so much technology and of course AI,
which is a positive thing in a lot of ways,

(57:07):
but can certainly be used for negative there are more
scams than ever, and they're getting more and more sophisticated.
We're going to talk to even Ian Philbrook. He's a
reporter at the Boston Globe. He recently pinned a story
about how sophisticated these scams are becoming and how they're
affecting consumers, but they're also affecting businesses because they're posing

(57:29):
as businesses to get to these consumers. So that's coming
up next Sunday right here on w RKO, The Voice
of Boston AM six 't eighty