Boston is on track to meet Mayor Martin Walsh’s goal of creating 53,000 units of housing by the year 2030, according to a new report from the mayor’s office.
According to the report, the first in a series of quarterly releases of housing data, in the first quarter of this year, 1,187 units of housing were created, bringing the total number of new units of housing created since the inception of the plan to 13,017. Another 825 units of housing were approved through the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), bringing the city’s total number of units permitted or approved to more than 21,000 units. The city achieved 121 percent of its target rate for creating 6,500 units of low-income housing by 2030 – Walsh awarded nearly $39 million to support affordable housing developments in Boston this week – and reached 88 percent of its quarterly target to reach 20,000 units of middle income housing by 2030, with 551 units created this quarter, and 3,740 units permitted to date. Seventy-five percent of the city’s new housing starts are within a five-minute walk of major transit, according to the report, keeping it in line with the mayor’s goal of creating transit-oriented housing.
“I am extremely proud of the progress that the city has made in increasing the supply of new housing that will reach the market,” Walsh said in a statement. “But in order to create a thriving, healthy and innovative city, we must work harder to ensure that everyone who wants to live here is able to. This report shows that Boston 2030 is more than just a thoughtful plan; it is a true blueprint for action.”
No new units of senior housing were created this quarter, although the city has permitted 284 new units of low-income senior housing, which is 89 percent of the target rate needed to reach 1,500 units by 2030. No new undergraduate dorm beds were produced this quarter; 1,983 have been produced to date.
The reported also noted that although the homeowner foreclosure rate has declined, foreclosure filings are rising. In March, lenders filed 1,108 petitions to foreclose compared with 660 filings in March 2014, according to data from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. The city said it is investigating this trend and developing strategies to deal with it in the second quarter of the year.
