Boston Mayor's Agenda Prioritizes Middle Class Housing Affordability

"Mayor Martin J. Walsh, in his first major real estate development initiative, is seeking to dramatically increase production of middle-income housing in Boston as the region’s red-hot property market pushes prices beyond the reach of most average wage earners," reports Casey Ross.

Although there are 6,600 rental and ownership units currently under construction in Boston, only "about 22 percent are considered affordable to households earning between $50,000 and $100,000 a year," writes Ross.

"In downtown Boston, for example, prospective buyers with household incomes of $80,000 could have afforded just 1.7 percent of the homes sold. In the South End, about 2.9 percent of transactions would have been within the reach of those house hunters."

A working group has been assembled, working with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, to create recommendations for the problem, which should be available in coming weeks. For a preview of what to expect from those recommendations, "Walsh administration officials said they will seek to spur more middle-income housing production in outlying neighborhoods such as Allston, Brighton, Dorchester, Roxbury, East Boston, Hyde Park, and Roslindale."