Where real estate meets rhythm | Developer, investor, live music enthusiast, and mountain seeker.

​ By Daniel Kaufman — May 2026 I've been developing workforce and affordable housing in New England long enough to recognize a zombie idea when I see one. The zombie in question: if you just build more units, prices will fall. It sounds so reasonable. It's Econ 101. Increase supply, reduce price. Works great for soybeans. Doesn't work nearly as cleanly for the thing people sleep in. A newly published study out of UVM — authored by economist Joe Ament and doctoral student Chris McElroy — just put some real data behind that skepticism, specifically in Burlington. The researchers analyzed more than 4,000 single- and two-family home sales over two decades, from 2003 to 2023, and what they found should reshape the policy conversation across all of New England, not just Vermont. THE NUMBERS THAT STOP YOU COLD Burlington's average home price nearly tripled over the study period, climbing from roughly $188,000 in 2003 to almost $500,000 by 2023 — with the steepest acceleration ...

​ Posted by Daniel Kaufman | April 2026 Let me be direct: LD 307 — Maine’s new moratorium on data center construction — is one of the most economically self-destructive pieces of legislation this state has passed in a generation. And I say that as someone who has spent years fighting for economic opportunity across this state’s forgotten mill towns, mountain communities, and post-industrial corridors. Maine just became the first state in the country to ban the construction of data centers larger than 20 megawatts. That ban runs until November 2027. The stated goal is to give the state time to “study” the potential energy impacts. The actual result? We just hung a “Closed for Business” sign on the door — and every competing state is already circling our opportunities like vultures. I have skin in this game. We have multiple micro data center projects in active planning stages across the state of Maine. Projects that would have brought hundreds of construction jobs, permanent technology ...

​ On Boyne’s drift, Killington’s reawakening, and the little mountain in New Hampshire that quietly showed everyone how it’s done. By Daniel Kaufman | April 2026 I’m a Sunday River pass holder. I own property there. I love that mountain — the eight interconnected peaks, the snowmaking that won’t quit, the community of people who’ve made Western Maine’s ski scene their winter home. This piece comes from love, not grievance. But love sometimes means telling the truth. Let me say upfront: Boyne Resorts is not the enemy. They’re not Vail. They’re a family-owned company that’s been around since 1947, still run by the Kircher family, and they have made real capital investments at Sunday River — new lifts, snowmaking upgrades, infrastructure improvements that matter. Credit where it’s due. But something has been drifting. And when you compare what’s happening at Sunday River to what Killington is doing under new independent ownership — and to what a small mountain in Jackson, New Hampshire is...

Spring 2026 is making it obvious who actually cares about skiing. It’s early April in New England. The snow is still deep. The days are long. The corn is perfect. And the biggest ski resorts in the region are shutting down. Meanwhile, the little guys? Still spinning lifts. This isn’t a weather story. It’s a business model story. And if you ski in New England, you need to pay attention. THE SCOREBOARD Killington, Vermont, independent, privately owned,  markets itself as the East’s longest season, and it’s earning that title again this spring, with no announced closing date and passes sold through the end of the season. Black Mountain in Jackson, New Hampshire, claims it will keep at least one run open until June 1. June. In New Hampshire. That’s not a typo. Now look at the corporate side. Sunday River, owned by Boyne Resorts closes April 19, 2026. Not a snow shortage. Not a force majeure. A scheduled corporate shutdown, weekend-only operations in the final stretch, with terrain shri...

​ By Daniel Kaufman | March 2026 I spend a lot of time thinking about what drives real estate demand, population shifts, employment anchors, infrastructure investment, interest rate cycles. But I’ll admit, foreign espionage operations aren’t usually in my underwriting model. They probably should be. Vanity Fair recently published a sweeping investigation into what it’s calling “Spylandia” a stretch of Florida’s Space Coast that has quietly become one of the most active corridors for Chinese and Russian intelligence operations in the United States. The piece details drone overflights of Kennedy Space Center, recruitment of SpaceX engineers at local bars, and the part that caught my attention as a developer — strategic real estate acquisitions near Patrick Space Force Base. Let me sit with that for a second. Real estate as an intelligence platform. Houses and rental units purchased specifically to surveil one of the most sensitive military and commercial space installations on the planet...

​ Across the country, we keep looking for a silver bullet to fix the housing shortage. Massive subsidies. Mega-developments. Sweeping federal programs. But sometimes the most practical solutions are the smallest ones. Three cities in Maine—Rockland, Bath, and Brunswick—are piloting a program that offers homeowners up to $10,000 to build an accessory dwelling unit (ADU). It’s called the ADU Boost Pilot Program, and while the grant itself may seem modest, the concept behind it is exactly the kind of thinking we need more of in housing policy. From a real estate developer’s perspective, programs like this recognize something the market has been saying for years: the fastest way to create housing isn’t always through large-scale projects. Sometimes it’s by empowering existing property owners to add supply incrementally. The Quiet Power of Accessory Dwelling Units ADUs—sometimes called carriage houses, backyard cottages, or in-law apartments—are one of the most underutilized t...