I have a sense that this is prevalent in the Dem circles as a way to invest in real estate and I'd look into who is renting these properties. Cambridge, I suspect these are rented to fellow liberal travelers probably on some liberal list floating around. Allows the perp to arrange a friendly solid lease, no riff raff, probably a Harvard employee - thus in 15 years they have a $750,000 asset with hardly any work. It's a payoff scheme I bet.
One of my son’s buddies lives in Cambridge. His rent is over $3500/month for a two bedroom. He splits it with another guy. They are both robotics engineers.
A single bedroom apartment there is at least $2400/month.
Cross the Charles river into Boston and rents are over $4k for a two bedroom.
Boston/Cambridge/Sommerville have 30+ colleges/universities. With many of the kids come from very wealthy families from all around the world. A lot of those Browns stones on Commonwealth Ave are all rented to College students. Sometimes up to 5 or 6 in a two bedroom.
A couple summers back I went to a Red Sox game and parked in the garage under Copley/Back Bay Sheraton. There was a Lambourghini parked in the garage covered in dust. I asked the attendant how long it had been there? He said at least six months(how long he worked there). He said it was some Asian kid going to Harvard or MIT. It hadn’t been moved since he worked there. Someone had written WASH ME and a smiley face on the windshield.