Greater Boston Housing Report Card
Boston Foundation – Boston housing report card. Excerpt from the executive summary:
In a nutshell, this report contains some very good news, but also some surprisingly disturbing news about home affordability, rents, and foreclosures.
The good news is that we now have some fairly strong indications that the current economic recession is drawing to an end nationally and regionally, and that at least in Massachusetts we believe we have seen the last of any major losses in jobs. We have also seen the first signs of an uptick in the housing market, with sales beginning to perk up along with home prices.
The bad news is that while housing has become more affordable relative to household incomes in Greater Boston, the region is now less affordable than ever compared with virtually every metro area we compete with across the country. Moreover, despite the recession, rents in Greater Boston are now substantially higher than before the recession began, and we have not seen any letup in the number of families falling behind in their mortgage payments and therefore becoming subject to the initiation of foreclosure activity.
In short, Greater Boston’s “housing crisis” is far from over.