Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh recently announced that according to the city’s quarterly housing report, Boston remains on target to meet the goal of creating 53,000 units of housing by 2030.
According to his Q1 2016 housing report, 565 new housing units were permitted this quarter, for a total of 17,183 units either permitted or completed since the launch of the administration’s housing plan, Housing a Changing City: Boston 2030, in October 2014.
“Our population is growing faster today than at any time in our city’s history, and I’m committed to making sure that Boston stays affordable by meeting the demand of our growing city,” Walsh said in a statement. “By working across multiple agencies, this administration is working every day to bring new units on line at a variety of income levels, and we are seeing results.”
According to the report, more than 3,000 new units, representing $1.4 billion in new investment, were approved by the city this quarter, resulting in an active development pipeline of 18,644 units of housing. In total, 35,808 new units of housing have either been completed or are in the development process.
The administration said there are more than 8,000 new units of housing currently being built in Boston. The mayor’s office said that represents more construction employment in the housing sector than at any time in the last 20 years.
By the end of Q1 2016, enough new housing had been completed to house 20,237 new Bostonians. Completions are now exceeding projected population growth. In the last year, enough housing came on line to house 5,900 people, while the Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s projection for population growth is 4,590 people per year.
The report said rents are rising across the board, but two-bedroom apartments in older buildings (those built prior to 2011) are only up 3 percent. Studio rents are up 13 percent and one-bedroom rents are up 9 percent.
Certain neighborhoods across the city may also be seeing slower rental pricing growth in existing stock: in Back Bay/Beacon Hill, Mattapan, the South End and the Central district, rents have only risen by one to 2 percent since 2014, according to the report.
