Stories
House hunting in Boston can often feel like one of those reality TV dating shows. There’s the first meeting, where you and a dozen or so other contestants circle the object of your desire. You fall in love, maybe make a proposal, and then more likely than not … you get rejected. This is the…
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Homeownership is the primary way most Americans build wealth. And for most people, buying a home doesn’t happen without a mortgage loan. Altogether, home loans amount to billions of dollars flowing into Boston every year. But this infusion of money doesn’t reach all parts of the city equally. A WBUR analysis finds lenders make a…
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Owning a home is considered part of the so-called American dream. But for Black and Hispanic Bostonians, it is more often a dream denied. A new WBUR analysis of mortgage lending in Boston from 2015-2020 found lenders denied mortgages to Black applicants at three times the rate of white applicants. Hispanic applicants were twice as…
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Victor and Amilbia came to this country, like many other migrants, to find better opportunities for themselves and their future family. So never in their wildest dreams did they think their American dream would include facing eviction. The family of seven, who asked that only their first names be used because the parents are undocumented,…
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In the bedroom community of Wilmington, Mass., just south of Lowell, sits a little white house, with paint peeling from the trim and a mailbox emblazoned with the American flag at the end of the driveway. Homeowners Edward Kaizer and his wife Mary Tassone-Kaizer say the house has been in the family for generations. But…
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New Hampshire’s housing shortage has slowed the process of resettling Afghan evacuees, according to two local organizations. Of the 150 Afghan evacuees who have arrived to New Hampshire since November, about half of them remain in hotels. “The housing market in New Hampshire has made it very difficult to find affordable and safe housing,” said Donna…
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New England states have seen a rise in migration during the pandemic. A study shows that 36 counties gained households since the first U.S. outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020. Nicholas Chiumenti, a senior policy analyst and author of the study at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said the pandemic changed the way people moved into New…
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Thomas Kania is the grandson of Polish immigrants, people who he says came to the United States for opportunity. Now Kania, a real estate investor, says it’s their experience that has motivated him to help others looking for a bit of opportunity of their own — newly arrived Afghan refugees. “It’s basically the American spirit,”…
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Down a hill from an office park in White River Junction is a campsite tucked away in the woods. It’s beneath a highway corridor, on land owned by the Vermont Agency of Transportation. There’s a small green cabin next to a covered cooking area. Inside is a bed on a raised platform, neatly made. Battery-powered…
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Dione Dwyer lives in Bridgeport, Conn.’s largest public housing complex, P.T. Barnum Apartments. She remembers moving in 19 years ago and just being thankful for something to call her own. At the time, she was a single mother to two young daughters and had no stable income. She had been living with her father, a…
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