In the media

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Our research is regularly cited in national and local news outlets; below is some of our recent press coverage.

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Boston.com

Seniors: Can you still afford Massachusetts?

Three out of five renters aged 80 and older in the Boston metropolitan area pay more than 30% of their income on housing, Jennifer Molinsky, project director of the Housing an Aging Society Program at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, told the Boston Globe. One in five pays more than half, she added.

The Boston Globe

Robotic furniture has renters short on space sitting pretty

A 2020 report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University notes various ways thoughtful design can deliver high-quality, affordable housing in multifamily residential developments. Mechanical and plumbing systems may make kitchens and bathrooms fixed components of a house, but the report noted that building a single “wet” wall can make those spaces more efficient.

The Boston Globe

High prices, years-long waitlists: Massachusetts needs more senior housing

Among renters 80 and older in the Boston metropolitan area, three out of five pay more than that, said Jennifer Molinsky, project director of the Housing an Aging Society Program at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. One of five pays more than half, she said. “Much of the assisted living [that’s available], and many of the retirement communities are for higher income people,” Molinsky said. “People in the middle really have very little choice if they want to move to a [new] place.”

The Economist

How Can American House Prices Still Be Rising?

Unable to trade up to nicer digs, locked-in homeowners have invested more in fixing up their current homes. The rise of remote working has reinforced this trend, with people adding extra office space to their houses. Remodelling expenditures in 2022 reached nearly $570bn, or about 2% of gdp, up by 40% in nominal terms from 2019, according to the Joint Centre for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

The Atlantic

The Abortion-Housing Nexus

“Even if people would want, in a perfect world, to move to a different place that didn’t have whatever-it-might-be laws, they’re kept in place by these bigger, more salient forces for them,” Riordan Frost, a senior research analyst at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, told me. “Even though there are abortion restrictions, people move because of affordability. Even though there are wildfires and more natural disasters in a place, people move because of affordability.”