Our beloved Bay State’s feckless elites are obsessed with chasing their latest shiny bauble, the 2024 Olympic Games, even as they ignore a huge crisis right under their noses.
Yes, we could very well win the games, only to see Greater Boston and the state as whole lose its competitive edge as an innovation hot spot, with rampant home prices slowly strangling our economic future, a new Massachusetts Housing Partnership report warns.
Texas, Florida and Colorado have suddenly become magnets for innovation economy workers from the Bay State, with cheaper and more abundant homes a major recruiting tool, according to the MHP report.
Massachusetts home prices have since increased six-fold since 1980, outpacing every other state in the union, while new construction has plunged, the report finds.
There is a way out of this ultimately losing game, with the MHP report handily outlining a package of reforms that could open the way to badly needed new housing. But it may very well take jettisoning those frivolous Olympic dreams to get there, at least in my humble opinion.
“Our high housing costs set us apart from many of the regions we compete with for jobs in industries such as higher education, computer technology, financial services and biotech,” the MHP reports.
The Hub’s Olympic boosters seem to think we are at the top of the world right now, with the games seen as a coronation of sorts. But that foothold at the top rungs looks pretty precarious, with our messed-up housing market one of our biggest weaknesses.
From 2008 to 2012, Massachusetts lost 190 innovation economy workers to Colorado for every 100 it gained from the Rocky Mountain State. The ratio was 180 new economy workers lost to Florida for every 100 gained, with a sizable 170 to 100 balance with Texas.
In the post-recession years, several other major metro markets are expanding the number of workers in key sectors like computer technology, biotech and financial services, at a much more rapid pace than Greater Boston. Denver saw 25 percent growth, Baltimore 22 percent, Dallas and Portland 16 percent, while Dallas weighs in at 15 percent and Austin nearly 13 percent. Boston, by contrast, saw its innovation workforce grow by a comparatively modest 7 percent.
The common denominator between these various rivals to our state’s leadership in cutting-edge sectors is not hard to find: There are simply many more reasonably priced homes to choose from in other cities and states.
Nine out of 10 metro markets in the U.S. have lower rents and home prices than Greater Boston, the report notes. Making things worse, NIMBY sentiment and suburbs and towns that have walled themselves off from most new housing, except for oversized single-families on one- or two-acre lots, have made local home builders an endangered species.
The number of homes, condos and apartments built across Massachusetts dropped by 52 percent from the 1960s to the 1990s, the report notes, citing a Rappaport Institute study. By contrast, 12 out of the top 20 metro markets with major innovation economy workforces are permitting more new homes, condos and apartments than Greater Boston.
That includes not only metros in Texas, New York and Los Angeles, but also more “built-out regions” like Seattle and Washington, D.C., the report contends.
Housing Needed, Not Olympics
So how do we dig out of this hole we find ourselves in? The MHP report – which has already been submitted to the Legislature – outlines a number of reforms needed in order for housing construction to rise and prices to fall.
The centerpiece of the package is a proposal that would require all towns and cities in the state to allow for new apartment and condo development in their communities. As it stands now, many communities don’t have provisions in their zoning codes for multifamily housing, requiring developers to run a gauntlet of local boards and approvals just to win an exception for their project. More than 200 out of 351 communities in the state have gone at least a decade since they gave a green light to a single new apartment or condo development.
No wonder, since developers can spend months, if not years, trying to get approval for new condo or apartment projects in towns that don’t allow for such housing in their zoning rules.
The proposal would also require towns and cities across the state to allow in their zoning codes by-right cluster development – basically single-families clustered together on smaller lots and often surrounded by open space. That would give developers an alternative to simply building more cookie-cutter colonials and McMansions on sprawling lots.
There are also provisions to crack down on court appeals and overly strict wetland regulations that can be used by opponents to force endless delays in hopes the developer will simply give up and walk away.
There is a way forward; however, the big question is whether there’s the political will to pass such a significant slate of housing reforms. This is the kind of stuff that will take years to get through the Legislature, and then only with the backing of top political and business leaders.
Sadly, that kind of political firepower looks much harder to muster after the recent announcement that Boston will represent the U.S. in the competition to host the 2024 games. Just recall how all-consuming on Beacon Hill the debate over casinos was. Then multiply that circus by a hundred to get a feel for the kind of endless public debate and drama we are in for with this Olympic boondoggle.
Good luck trying then to pass something as crucial – and far less exciting – as zoning reform.
It’s time for our political and business elites to grow up, cast aside their steamy Olympic fantasies, and get to work on solving our state’s housing woes before it’s too late.
Email: sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com
