Andrew Brinker

Maura Healey unveiled her latest plan to tackle Massachusetts’ housing crisis: Fewer staircases - The Boston Globe Fire codes have long required two staircases in mid-rise apartment buildings. But advocates worry that drives up construction costs. So the state will study doing away with one.

Could Mass. build more housing if buildings had fewer staircases? Gov. Maura Healey is interested in finding out.

www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/12/b...

Beacon Hill may not be able to avoid rent control much longer - The Boston Globe Some tenant advocates are hoping lawmakers will take up a legislative compromise to enact a version of rent control while avoiding a bruising ballot fight.

Mass. lawmakers have for years ignored advocates' calls for rent control. Now staring down a ballot question that would enact the country's strictest rent cap, will they consider a legislative compromise?

www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/04/b...

In Winthrop, the state’s ambitious housing law was on the ballot. It lost in a rout. - The Boston Globe Candidates opposed to the MBTA Communities Act — the controversial housing law that has ignited fierce debate in Winthrop and other towns in Eastern Massachusetts — won all six council seats that were...

And last night, Winthrop voters doubled down, electing a slate of anti-MBTA Communities candidates to the Town Council.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/05/b...

How the state’s most ambitious housing law in decades is tearing this peninsula town apart - The Boston Globe Many towns have been divided over the MBTA Communities Act, but few as badly as Winthrop.

A story about what all of those local housing fights are really about: change.

A housing crisis, a state law, and Winthrop's fight to stay the same.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/03/b...

Are you worried you may never be able to purchase a home in Greater Boston? We want to hear from you. - The Boston Globe The Globe is looking to speak with renters in Greater Boston about their experience searching for a home.

Are you a Greater Boston renter who is worried you may never be able to buy a home in this region? Get in touch for a story I'm working on about the changing economics of homebuying, and who can really afford to buy around here.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/30/b...

As federal cuts loom, rental housing vouchers across Mass. are being put on hold - The Boston Globe Most housing authorities in the state have recently stopped issuing new Section 8 vouchers when tenants give them up, and some are closing waitlists for new applicants.

In Massachusetts’ brutal housing market, the wait for housing vouchers that help hundreds of thousands afford the state’s sky-high rents can stretch as long as 15 years.

Now, that wait may grow even longer.

@andrewbrinker.bsky.social @bostonglobe.com

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/22/b...

If so many people are leaving Massachusetts, why aren’t housing costs going down? - The Boston Globe The state’s combination of slow population growth and sky-high prices would seem to contradict the basic laws of supply and demand.

Why is it a bad thing if kids move away? Won't housing demand go down? Because those kids are future workers, who power companies and economy. “That's not a scenario anyone should root for,” says @dmccue.bsky.social. “States with healthy economies don‘t shrink.”

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/14/b...

‘The numbers should work, and they just don’t’: Is Cambridge’s affordable housing rule backfiring? - The Boston Globe Housing is so expensive to build right now that some developers say the city's requirement that 20 percent of units be aside at below-market rents is making otherwise profitable projects too costly.

Housing is so expensive to build right now that some developers say that the so-called inclusionary housing requirement in Cambridge may be backfiring, making otherwise profitable projects too costly to build and stopping them before shovels hit the ground.

Fixed!

Hi Greater Boston folks. For a Globe story about the state of the housing market: Have you been looking to buy a house but are holding out for lower interest rates? Searched for a place to buy but can't find anything in your price range? DM me, or drop a line at andrew.brinker@globe.com

Is this the fix for Massachusetts’ housing crisis? - The Boston Globe Faced with a supply crunch and rising costs, the state has taken steps to make housing more plentiful and more affordable.

Housing supply is crunched and costs are rising, but Massachusetts is taking steps to fix the problem. Today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains those efforts, and their limits, with a huge assist from my colleague @andrewbrinker.bsky.social www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/19/n...

For those following MBTA Communities state housing law: In new "emergency regulations" filed today after SJC ruling last week, the state extends an olive branch to Milton and other noncompliant towns, extending their deadline to pass a zoning plan to July 14. For now, Milton has another chance.

From the boston community on Reddit: I’m Andrew Brinker, a reporter at The Boston Globe covering housing and the cost of living in Massachusetts. Ask me anything about Greater Boston’s housing crisis. Explore this post and more from the boston community

Starting at noon, I’m doing a Reddit AMA talking all things Massachusetts housing. Have a question? Come join! There’s already a ton of great discussion on this thread.

www.reddit.com/r/boston/com...

Square shaped box with a black background and white text. At the top of the square it says: ask us anything | reddit 12 p.m. There are eight white outlines of houses with four in each row under that. The next row of text says: Reddit AMA on r/boston. The text underneath that black says: Globe reporter Andrew Brinker will be answering questions about what’s changed in housing around the Boston area in the last year.

Have a question about Greater Boston’s ongoing housing crisis? Join us on Reddit at noon!

Globe reporter @andrewbrinker.bsky.social will be answering questions on a wide range of topics.

Solutions to Boston’s housing crisis ... in Texas? - The Boston Globe A group of city councilors invited a group of their colleagues north to help figure out how Boston might dig out of its deep housing shortage the way Austin is.

“Why can a wealthy homeowner build a single 4,500 square-foot house, but a community-minded developer can’t build three 1,500 square-foot homes without the municipal equivalent of an act of Congress?” @lesliepool.bsky.social

www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12/06/b...