The Choices, Experiences, and Role of Second Homeowners in Boston

Led by Ph.D. candidate Meaghan Stiman under the advisement of Professor Japonica Brown-Saracino, this study seeks to understand a rarely studied class of urban resident: the second homeowner. Stiman will evaluate how Boston second homeowners frame their residential choices and experiences, their civic, cultural and economic contributions, and their impact on neighborhood character over time.

Meaghan Stiman
Meaghan is a doctoral student in the department of sociology at Boston University. Her research interests include community and urban sociology, ethnography, and race, class, and gender. Meaghan is broadly interested in understanding how communities and neighborhoods change and the groups of people who help to produce these changes. Using a combination of ethnographic, interview, and survey data, her dissertation traces the role, experience, and impact of second homeowners and second homeownership in rural and urban contexts: Rangeley, a rural four-season vacation destination in Northern Maine, and Boston, a growing site of urban second homeownership.

Presentations:

• “The Rise of City Specters in Boston, Massachusetts.” Eastern Sociological Association Conference, March 2016.
• “Suburbia-birds as Central City Super-Gentrifiers: The Case of Second Homeownership in Boston, Massachusetts.” American Sociological Association Conference, August 2016.

Publications:

Meaghan Stiman (2019): Speculators and specters: Diverse forms of second homeowner engagement in Boston, Massachusetts, Journal of Urban Affairs

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