Developers built or permitted 24,953 new homes and apartments between 2011 and 2018, but most people still find it hard to afford the cost of living in Boston as rent and home price increases far outstrip growth in wages.
Home prices in Boston grew 8% faster than household incomes during that period and in Suffolk County rent increased six times as fast as household income, according to federal statistics.
Boston has taken on a bold initiative to encourage the development of 69,000 new units by 2030 to address help address the region’s housing crisis, but the shortage in housing availability and affordability is a problem that “Boston alone cannot solve,” said Rachel Heller of the Citizens’ Housing And Planning Association.
Mark Calabria, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency that oversees the federal home loan program, told the Herald that the housing supply is a nationwide issue and creating an environment that supports housing development comes down to “land, labor and loans.”
Calabria said his job is make sure loans are supported.
Last month, he announced he was taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of conservatorship which he called the last “unfinished business” of the last recession. He said he is doing so in a manner that will ensure they can withstand a downturn in the market. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the mortgage market.
Mayor Martin Walsh said the city continues to work on legislative actions that will protect existing residents and facilitate the building of housing supply to meet the needs of all residents with the fundamental belief that more supply will result in lower rents and housing prices.
Later this fall he will come out with a new inclusionary development policy that will require more developers to build more affordable housing.
