A report from Next City on Massachusetts. "A large percentage of Boston’s luxury condos are going to LLCs and trusts rather than owner-occupants according to a new study, which claims that the city’s high-end building boom isn’t doing much to address the local housing shortage. Researchers from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) examined property records for roughly 1,800 condos in 12 newer luxury buildings throughout the city, the Boston Globe reports. The condos generally sell for over $3 million apiece."

"They found that over 35 percent of the units were owned by LLCs or trusts that obscured the real owners and beneficiaries. What’s more, 64 percent of the owners didn’t claim the residential exemption offered by the city, which may indicate that Boston isn’t their primary residence."

"'I wouldn’t even call these buildings a housing market,' study author Chuck Collins recently told the Globe. 'It’s just another asset class for a segment of investors looking for an alternative to the stock market. It’s not a home. It’s a wealth-storage unit.'"

From Curbed Boston. "In some buildings, the shares of LLCs and those units not claiming the residential exemption are particularly high, according to the study. For instance, 56 percent of the 51 units in the Mandarin Oriental at the Prudential Center 'are owned by trusts, LLCs, and shell corporations, and fewer than 18 percent claim a residential exemption.' At Downtown Crossing’s Millennium Tower, 35 percent of its 443 units 'are owned by shell corporations and trusts, and almost 80 percent of the units do not claim the residential exemption.'"

From WBUR News. "Opponents of Boston's luxury housing boom are warning of another prospective danger beyond raising rents and forcing out longtime residents -- tax evasion and money laundering under the cover of the multimillion-dollar condos sprouting through the sky. The reports co-author, Boston-based Chuck Collins, says the shell game could be providing cover to crimes like tax evasion — and warns the city should be vigilant."

"'When you see a Delaware LLC buying a $6 million condo with cash and you can’t trace the owner, then you have to ask: 'Why is this property being purchased? Is it money laundering?' Collins said."

"'We spot-checked some of those buildings and found there were large numbers of cash purchases by shell corporations, which is sort of a red flag for possible use of illicit funds,' Collins said. 'They have very high percentage of non-resident ownership, they have a very high percentage of shell corporations. ... If we were in Miami or New York those are the buildings that the Treasury Department crime division would be investigating.'"

"The study points out that Boston is not among the cities monitored for illicit real estate dealings by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, a Treasury Department program designed to combat money laundering."

"For City Councilor Lydia Edwards, however, more needs to be done for middle-class and low-income housing, especially in light of the new report. 'Boston is being consumed by people who are not here,' Edwards said. 'That’s I think where there’s a disconnect, where we are building really more pieces of stock then we are actually housing.'"

"Sam Tyler, president of the Boston Metropolitan Research Bureau, says Boston depends heavily on the tax revenue that comes from new development. And the luxury housing market, with many of the developments cited in the report permitted under Mayor Tom Menino, is not something the city is in a position to change."

"The city 'is not necessarily encouraging luxury condominiums and the construction of those, it’s just that that’s the kind of housing that can be built downtown,' said Tyler."

From WGBH News. "WGBH All Things Considered anchor Barbara Howard: Boston, as we all know, is undergoing a real housing crisis in terms of the average homeowner looking to buy. These are luxury properties, so how would that impact your average Joe looking for a house?"

"Chuck Collins - lead author of the report: Here's what I would say: if you look at what's happening right now, we have a luxury real estate boom, and we have thousands of more luxury units coming. They've been approved in the Seaport and in the Fenway and the Back Bay. Ten years from now, we're going to look back and say the city, the skyline, and the demographics of the city have been fundamentally altered."