Other places that cost less also have things to do and see. Think you’ll miss being near a large body of water? Here’s a tip: The Great Lakes look a lot like the ocean. You can even surf them for part of the year. They’re too big to see across and they can get massive storms, such as the Huron hurricane of 1913. Plus, the beaches are lovely, and they don’t have sharks. (They do have muskellunge, but those rarely attack humans.)
And guess what single-family homes cost in the Midwestern states that border on the Great Lakes — Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin? All of them have median single-family home prices that fall between $200,000 and $325,000. A new report from City Lab finds the Midwest might be the last region in the United States homeowners can realistically afford.
I’ve been exploring this because my sons bemoan how long it’s going to be before they can move out. Meanwhile, I’ve been cleaning out my late father’s house in the little city where I grew up in Michigan, about 90 miles west of Detroit. Dad’s house is a 2,000-square-foot, 4 bedroom, two bath fixer-upper with Victorian flourishes and a big yard. Put it pretty much anyplace in the Boston area and it’s almost certainly a million-dollar house, even though it needs a fair amount of work. It is where it is, however, and the real estate agent thinks I’d be lucky to get $120,000 for it. Boys, are you sure it would be so terrible to spend a few years renting from Dad?
The rental market is tight where I grew up, people tell me — vacancy rates are about 18 percent (reminder: Boston’s vacancy rate is below 1 percent). In June, there were 28 houses on the market in my hometown, starting at $41,000 for a 1,048-square-foot, two bedroom, one bath home. Granted, the agent noted that one “needs sprucing up,” but it did sell, for about $35,000.
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I’ve lived on both US coasts, so I know right about now some of you are sneering cheap for a reason. Yes, I get it, these are all states New Englanders like to mock — the buckle of the Rust Belt. Out here there are pity parties for people from places such as Cleveland or Milwaukee or Detroit. While you’ll do best financially if you’re able to work remotely, all the Great Lakes states have unemployment rates below 5 percent, with most below 4 percent.
It’s true that aside from Illinois, the Great Lakes states are not as progressive as Massachusetts. But most of them are at least decent on several measures of social tolerance (though maybe Indiana has more in common with Alabama). All the cities I mentioned have metro areas with at least a million people. They have excellent museums, cultural institutions, and recreational options, along with vibrant neighborhoods. Plus, collegiate sports in the Midwest aren’t stuck reminiscing about a certain Hail Mary in 1984, and as a region it has one less pro sports championship than Boston has had since 2000 (more, if you count Pennsylvania’s). Chicago is, of course, a great city. I would move back there in a heartbeat if I could talk my wife into it.
And yes, it’s also true that some of the Great Lakes states have enough Republicans living in them to shade purple or even red (looking at you, Indianabama). Just think of it as a different kind of diversity, like New Hampshire but friendlier. Remember, these states also tend to have big labor union membership. If you’re red or blue, you’ll find your people.
Because here’s the thing: Boston isn’t going to get more affordable any time soon. Daryl Fairweather, the chief economist for Redfin, says the main issue here in Boston, as with nearly all American cities, is that “the supply of housing is restricted.” Supply can’t meet demand, in other words. And as the Globe has detailed again and again, it isn’t going to for years to come.
Another reason prices are so high here could be that they’re driven by future expectations. Forthcoming work by Itzhak Ben-David, a finance professor at The Ohio State University, and two coauthors found that during the housing boom of 1996 to 2006, prices were higher in some places partly because people expected them to be. The Great Lakes states had lower prices than Boston in part because there’s an expectation in the market that economic opportunity, and thus rents, will continue to be higher in Boston than in, say, Detroit or Erie, Pennsylvania. Of course, the factors that influence pricing are also complex and vary by place. “Real estate is not a commodity that is easy to transport from one place to another,” Ben-David told me in an email interview.
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Right now, Boston prices are high in part because people expect them to be. Expectations can be dashed, as happened in 2006, when the housing bubble burst. But why wait?
Economist Fairweather moved from Seattle to a smallish city in Wisconsin in a resort area for Chicagoans. She moved in part because her husband’s family is in the region, and in part because cost analysis showed that despite her deep ties to the Seattle area, it was time for her and her family to move someplace with a lower cost of living, and one where livability wasn’t trending downward. She says she’s been in Wisconsin for three years now, and “it’s getting better in terms of amenities.”
That’s what places will do when people move to them — they develop more reasons to enjoy living there. It takes time and patience. Remember that Massachusetts wasn’t as progressive just a few decades ago. States don’t stay static, as we’re seeing with Arizona, Georgia, and New Mexico. It might be awkward for a while before you start to feel like you’re in Jamaica Plain West. But if you’ve already contemplated living in your car to afford staying in Boston, maybe a little social discomfort isn’t going to phase you.
Don’t wait too long, though — even my Michigan hometown is in what Rocket Homes says is a seller’s market, because prices are rising. Median pricing could hit the $130s sometime soon.
Michael Fitzgerald is editor in chief of Harvard Public Health and a former editor at Globe Magazine. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.
Last February, Northeastern University student Ella Stapleton was struggling through her organizational behavior class. She began reviewing the notes her professor created outside of class early in the semester to see if it could guide her through the course content. But there was a problem: Stapleton said the notes were incomprehensible.
“It was basically like just word vomit,” said Stapleton.
While scrolling through a document her professor created, Stapleton said she found aChatGPTinquiry had been accidentally copied and pasted into the document. A section of notes also contained a ChatGPT-generated content disclaimer.
Stapleton believes her adjunct professor was overworked, teaching too many courses at once, and was therefore forced to sacrifice his quality of teaching with a shortcut from artificial intelligence.
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“I personally do not blame the professor, I blame the system,” said Stapleton.
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Ella Stapleton
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Stapleton said she printed 60 pages worth of AI-generated content she believed her professor utilized for the class and brought it to a Northeastern staff member to lodge a complaint. She also made a bold demand: a refund for her and each of her classmates for the cost of the class.
“If I buy something for $8,000 and it’s faulty, I should get a refund,” said Stapleton, who has since graduated. “So why doesn’t that logic apply to this?”
Stapleton’s request made national headlines after she shared her story with The New York Times.
The moment on Northeastern’s campus encapsulates a larger issue that higher education institutions are grappling with across the country: how much AI use is ethical in the classroom?
NBC10 Boston collaborated with journalism students at Boston University’s College of Communication who are taking an in-depth reporting class taught by investigative reporter Ryan Kath.
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We took a deep dive into how generative AI is changing the approach of higher education, from how students apply it to their everyday work to how universities are responding with academic programs and institutional studies.
With its widespread use, we also explored this question: what is AI doing to students’ critical thinking skills?
A degree in AI?
While driving along a highway in rural New Hampshire, a billboard caught our attention.
The message advertised a Bachelor of Science degree in artificial intelligence being offered at Rivier University in Nashua. We decided to visit the campus to learn more about the new program.
“The mission of Rivier is transforming hearts and minds to serve the world, and that transformation means to change,” said President of Rivier University Sister Paula Marie Buley.
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Sister Paul Marie Buley
At Rivier University, students pay almost $40,000 for a bachelor’s degree in artificial AI, which will prepare them for a field with a median salary of roughly $145,000, according to the institution.
Upon graduating, the aim of Rivier’s undergraduate program in AI is for students to hold professional practices that allow them to strengthen their skills in the dynamic field.
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Master’s degree programs in artificial intelligence have begun to pop up in universities across New England including Northeastern University, Boston University, and New England College. The first bachelor’s degree in AI was created in 2018 by Carnegie Mellon University, according to Master’s in AI.
“We want students to enter the mindset of a software engineer or a programmer and really haven’t an idea of what it feels like to work in a particular industry,” said Buley. “The future is here.”
In a 2024 survey from EDUCAUSE, a higher education advocacy nonprofit, 73% of higher education professionals said their institutions’ AI-related planning was driven by the growing use of these tools among students.
At Boston University, students can complete a self-paced, four-hour online course to earn an “AI at BU” student certificate. The course introduces the fundamentals of AI, with modules focused on responsible use, university-wide policies, and practical applications in both academic and professional settings, according to the certificate website.
Students are also encouraged to reflect on the ethical boundaries of AI tools and how to critically assess their use in coursework.
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BU student Lauren McLeod said she doesn’t understand the resistance to AI in education. She believes schools should focus on teaching students to use it strategically. In lieu of clear institution-wide policies, AI usage policies differ from professor to professor.
“Are you using [AI] in a productive way, or using it to cut corners? They just need to change the framework on it and use it as a tool to help you,” said McLeod. “If you don’t use AI, you’re gonna fall behind.”
Despite rising awareness, colleges are slow to develop new policies. Only 20% of colleges and universities have published policies regarding AI use, according to Inside Higher Ed.
AI and critical thinking
AI is becoming an everyday tool for students in the classroom and on homework assignments, according to Pew Research Center.
Earlier this month, we stopped students along Commonwealth Avenue on BU’s campus to ask how much AI they use and if they think it’s affecting their brains.
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BU student Kelsey Keate said she uses AI in her coding classes and knows she relies on it too much.
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Kelsey Keate
“I feel like it’s definitely not helped me learn the code as easily, like I take longer to learn code now,” said Keate.
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That is what worries researchers like Nataliya Kos’myna.
This June, the MIT Media Lab, an interdisciplinary research laboratory, released a study investigating how students’ critical thinking skills are exercised while writing an essay with or without AI assistance.
Kos’myna, an author of the study, said humans are standing at a technological crossroads—a point where it’s necessary to understand what exactly AI is doing to people’s brains. Three groups of 54 students from the Boston area participated in the study.
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MIT researcher Nataliya Kos’myna
“This technology had been implemented and I would actually argue pushed in some cases on us, in all of the aspects of our lives, education, workspace, you name it,” said Kos’myna.
Tasked with writing an SAT-style essay, one student group had access to AI, one could only use non-AI search engines, and the final group had to use their brain alone, according to the project website.
Recording the participants’ brain activity, Kos’myna was able to see how engaged students were with their task and how much effort they put into the thought process.
The study ultimately concluded the convenience of AI came at a “cognitive cost.” Participants’ ability to critically evaluate the AI answer to their prompt was diminished. All three groups demonstrated different patterns of brain activity, according to the study.
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Kos’myna found that students in the AI-assisted group didn’t feel much ownership towards their essays and students felt detached from the work they submitted. Graders were able to identify an AI-unique writing structure and noted that the vocabulary and ideas were strikingly similar.
“What we found are some of the things that were actually pretty concerning,” said Kos’myna.
The paper for the study is awaiting peer review but Kos’myna said the findings were important for them to share. She is urging the scientific community to prioritize more research about AI’s effect on human cognition, especially as it becomes a staple of everyday life.
After AI discovery, tuition refund rejected
In the wake of filing a complaint, Stapleton said Northeastern was silent for months. The school eventually put the adjunct professor “on notice” last May after she had graduated.
“Northeastern embraces the responsible use of artificial intelligence to enhance all aspects of its teaching, research, and operations,” said Renata Nyul, vice president for communications at Northeastern University in response to our request for comment. “We have developed an abundance of resources to ensure that both faculty and students use AI as a support system for teaching and learning, not a replacement.”
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In addition to the AI-generated content being difficult to understand and learn from, Stapleton said it doesn’t justify the cost of tuition. In her complaint, Stapleton asked that she and all of her classmates be reimbursed a quarter of their tuition for the course.
Her refund request did not prevail, but Stapleton hopes the attention her story received will provide a teachable moment for colleges around the country.
“In exchange for tuition, [universities] grant you the transfer of knowledge and good teaching,” said Stapleton. “In this case, that fundamentally wasn’t happening, because the only content that we were being given was al AI-generated.”
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Grace Sferrazza, Megan Amato and Dahye Kim report from the field.
The story was written by Amato, Kim and Sferrazza and edited by Kath
The MBTA warned of delays on the Red Line on Monday morning due to “multiple disabled trains” being removed from service.
In a post on X around 9:19 a.m., the T said delays of 30 minutes could be expected.
Passengers can also use the Commuter Rail for alternate service between Braintree and South Station, MBTA officials said.
“We did have some train issues on the Red Line in the Braintree area,” Phillip Eng, the T’s general manager and interim transportation secretary, said Monday morning. “I believe we’re on top of that and it’s clearing up.”
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Ryan Coholan, the MBTA’s chief operating officer, said the issue was with some “older legacy equipment” that is in need of repairs. He added that the T is working with mechanical personnel “to make sure we’re in a good spot for this evening.”
Last season, Montreal was the puzzle the Fleet just couldn’t seem to solve.
The Victoire won four of the teams’ six meetings in 2024-25, and seemed on pace to repeat their success against the Fleet to start this season with wins in both of the teams’ preseason games against each other.
But the Fleet bucked that trend in their season opener, beating Montreal, 2-0, in front of a crowd of 5,166 at Lowell’s Tsongas Center.
Susanna Tapani scored in the first minute and captain Megan Keller added an insurance goal in the third period. Aerin Frankel made 25 saves to preserve her first shutout of the season.
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Boston was hot from the jump and broke away just one minute into the first period when veteran forward Jamie Lee Rattray corralled a high puck at the blue line and brought it down to her stick before sending a pass to Tapani, who carried it into the circle sent a pass toward the crease of Ann-Renee Desbiens, the reigning PWHL goalie of the year.
After moving through a scrum of players, the puck bounced off Montreal forward Shiann Darkangelo’s skate and snuck past Desbiens’s outstretched left leg to give the Fleet a 1-0 advantage just 1:13 into the game.
Montreal — which also boasts the reigning MVP and league leader in goals Marie-Philip Poulin — tested Frankel nine times in the first frame. The Victoire’s two biggest chances came within the final 10 seconds of the period when the Victoire’s previously dormant offense came to life and forced the Fleet goaltender to make two saves in quick succession.
Montreal stayed hot to open the second period and put the Tsongas Center crowd on edge, but fans leapt to their feet when Keller sent a rebound shot into the back of the net with eight minutes remaining in the second period. Their cheers quickly turned to boos as officials waved it off because Sophie Shirley made contact with Desbiens in the crease.
The Fleet then had another prime opportunity as the second period waned when Poulin went to the box to serve a double minor penalty, but Boston didn’t manage a single shot on Desbiens before the end of the frame.
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The Fleet returned from intermission with 50 seconds remaining on the power play, and Montreal killed it off, but their return to even strength didn’t last long.
Poulin hit Teresa Schafzahl into the boards and went to the box for illegal body checking, and Jill Saulnier jumped to Schafzahl’s defense and started a brawl with Laura Stacey, earning Saulnier and Stacey each a trip to the penalty box as well.
Boston capitalized on the player-up opportunity, when a bit of chaos in front of the net allowed Keller to poke a loose puck past Desbiens, who was out of position near the right post, to make it 2-0.
The Fleet will play Saturday in Toronto before returning to face Vancouver at Agganis Arena on Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. (NESN).
Emma Healy can be reached at emma.healy@globe.com or on X @ByEmmaHealy.
