Research snapshot · Development · 31 August 2026

Short term rental keeps a steady drumbeat in Massachusetts

This page is a snapshot, cut 31 August 2026, of a topic that moves. Below is the shape of the movement, read from the towns' own meeting records, and the way to get a view of it that stays current.

Worth tracking for thesis expansion.Our definition of the class, 29 August 2026.

Snapshot taken 31 August 2026, based on 7 dated municipal records flagged as short term rental in Massachusetts, spanning 8 municipalities. The topic moves; a later cut supersedes this page.

What this page is for one topic at state or national scope, told as a story: how it arrived, the shape of its movement, a dated snapshot of a moving record, and the door to a view of it that stays current. If it does not, write to us; that is what changes the next edition.

The story so far

The record starts in Hingham, 1 August 2024. Since then 8 Massachusetts towns have put the topic on a meeting record, the newest of them Randolph on 5 August 2026.

The last 90 days put 2 meetings on the record, level with the 90 days before.

It runs through the rooms where budgets and ordinances are made: Operating Budget, Zoning Board of Appeals Decisions and Warrants.

The shape of the movement

Dated meetings on the record at this scope, quarter by quarter, and the same 90-day count as a rolling line, whose right-hand point is that number. Counts of documents, never a reading of what they decided.
QuarterMeetingsTowns
Sep 2025 to Nov 202500
Dec 2025 to Feb 202600
Mar 2026 to May 202622
Jun 2026 to Aug 2026 (current)22

a rolling 90-day total, so the right-hand point is that same 90-day count. The busiest stretch was Mar 2026 to May 2026, with 2 meetings.

The towns on the record8, earliest first

Every Massachusetts town carrying the topic, the earliest first, each with its latest document.
Hinghamearliest 2024-08-01 · 1 meeting · latest 2024-08-01 · the document 300 Beal Street Owner LLC
Easthamptonearliest 2025-03-14 · 1 meeting · latest 2025-03-14 · the document 3-14-2025 - Short-term Rentals Memo
Sandwichearliest 2025-05-05 · 1 meeting · latest 2025-05-05 · the document Annual Town Meeting Warrant May 5, 2025
Salemearliest 2026-04-14 · 1 meeting · latest 2026-04-14 · the agenda Board of Health Agenda 4/14/2026
Stoughtonearliest 2026-05-07 · 1 meeting · latest 2026-05-07 · the agenda 05.07.2026 Zoning Board Of Appeals (PDF)
Lowellearliest 2026-06-16 · 1 meeting · latest 2026-06-16 · the agenda City Council Regular Meeting
Randolphearliest 2026-08-05 · 1 meeting · latest 2026-08-05 · the agenda Agenda — 2026-08-05
Warehamdated to the year only

From the record

The most recent documents behind this page, one per town. Each link opens the town's own file.

5 August 2026 · Randolph

the agenda, on the town's own site Agenda — 2026-08-05

16 June 2026 · Lowell City Council

the agenda, on the town's own site City Council Regular Meeting

7 May 2026 · Stoughton Zoning Board of Appeals

the agenda, on the town's own site 05.07.2026 Zoning Board Of Appeals (PDF)

14 April 2026 · Salem Board of Health

the agenda, on the town's own site Board of Health Agenda 4/14/2026

Companies on this record7 companies, 4 documents

Named in the same documents that carry this topic, read from the record itself: the firms designing, building and advising the work, each with where the record places them:
Blue Hills Ballroom, LLCRandolph
Center for Active LivingSandwich
Corpus Christi Parish HallSandwich
Dain, Torpy, Le Ray, Wiest & Garner, P.C.Hingham
Nayanaba Inc. dba Super MartRandolph
Ruth J. Goulston Family TrustStoughton
Scolnick Laverty & Gouveia LLPHingham

The documents naming each, and the threads they sit in, are the account view. If one of these is you, those are your projects on the record. Ask and we will show you every one, and the towns around them, as they move.

A snapshot of a moving record

Everything above is frozen at 31 August 2026; the topic is not. 36 more events on this topic carry no usable date and are counted, never dated. The counts follow where we read most: a town or a state absent here was not read at depth, and absence is not evidence the topic is absent there. A lighter-read state is not a ceiling; where you care about a region, pointing the system there is the first thing an account changes. How coverage is built, and its known limits: municipalalpha.com/methodology.

How we can tell you about it ongoing

We track this topic continuously; this page is one cut of it, taken 31 August 2026. An account turns the snapshot into a working view: every town and every document behind these counts, the thread on each matter as it develops, word of new meetings as they land on the record, your own states and topics side by side, and the data itself when you want it in a table. The towns above are the taste; what each is actually deciding, funding or stalling is the read an account carries.

Also at this scope: Short term rental across the country. The site's story on this topic: The Housing Density Wave Is Rewriting Municipal Zoning in Real Time. Counts and dates are computed from the documents on the record; the topic and its definition are ours. This page carries no subscriber content.

Short term rental, Massachusetts

from the towns' own meeting records

Scope

Massachusetts

every topic this state carries

Area

Development

every topic in this area

Towns on the record

8

with a dated document on this topic

Earliest

1 August 2024

the documents' dates

Meetings, last 90 days

2 against 2 before

dated documents

Snapshot cut

31 August 2026

this page's date

A view that stays current

ask for yours