Massachusetts

New York state's issuers topped the Northeast charts as issuance rose in nearly every sector of the market during the first half of 2024.

One-time spending, rainy-day funds and fare hikes are forming a rickety bridge for crossing the transit funding ravine.

In a year characterized by a rise in mega deals, the agency looks to address an advancing financial "cliff."

In the first half of 2024, winding-down federal aid, a resurgence of Build America Bond refundings and election uncertainty have contributed to the surge in issuance, said James Welch, a portfolio manager at Principal Asset Management.

April's volume stood at $40.456 billion in 653 issues, up 21.2% from $33.377 billion in 666 issues in 2023.

"Just like the ATM became an additional transaction channel in the banking industry, I believe distributed ledger technology will provide municipal issuers with a similarly valued tool to sell their bonds," said Rick Coscia, Quincy's Strategic Asset Manager.

Boston is more dependent on property taxes from commercial real estate, and property taxes in general, than most of its large-city peers.

High rates and high inflation, coupled with rich reserves, pushed off or delayed issuers coming to market in 2023, noted James Pruskowski, chief investment officer at 16Rock Asset Management.

An off year from municipal bond issuers in the Northeast in 2023 pulled the national volume numbers into negative territory.

The top five bond financings have an average dollar volume of nearly $1.5 billion.