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Highlights
Goals & Measures
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Housing
CONTEXT
Housing meets the basic human need for shelter, provides a key building block of livable communities, and is a means to economic opportunity and security—a critical part of an equitable, sustainable and prosperous regional economy. Metropolitan Boston is home to more than 3.3 million people living in 1.3 million households. In the City of Boston, roughly 600,000 people comprise nearly 240,000 households across a variety of housing types--from high-rise apartments to triple-deckers and single-family homes. The housing sector includes homeowners and renters, home builders and the building trades, architects and developers, real estate agents, community development corporations and other nonprofit housing providers, community-based and advocacy groups, banks and mortgage companies, and public housing and public financing agencies. In addition to housing supply and location, affordability is a key issue driving individual and business decisions.
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Housing costs in Boston and Massachusetts have soared since the mid-1990s, and today, Metro Boston is one of the least affordable metropolitan areas in the US for both renters and homebuyers.
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Demographic trends, increasing demand for housing located near public transit, and the new 40R/40S zoning overlay districts available to cities and towns are stimulating "smart growth" development.
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While homeownership rates among people of color and newcomer immigrants in Greater Boston are increasing, the gap in homeownership rates between whites and people of color has also increased.
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Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s "Leading the Way II" campaign exceeded its production target of 10,000 new units, bringing the Leading the Way Initiative total to 18,000.
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Commonwealth Housing Task Force successfully advocated for legislation encouraging 40R/40S zoning overlay districts to stimulate the construction of smart growth and affordable housing.
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Affordable Housing Finance magazine named Maverick Landing its “Best Overall Project” in 2006.
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Local housing costs are a major barrier to attracting and keeping workers and families in Greater Boston and the Commonwealth.
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Despite recent progress in increasing affordable housing in suburban communities, fewer than one in seven Massachusetts communities meets the state goal of 10%.
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Massachusetts has already lost almost 12,000 subsidized units and is at risk of losing 21,948 more by December 31, 2010 through “expiring use.”
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| New @ Indicators | Consumer Resources: Foreclosures and Sub-Prime Lending
Connect to
local, state and Federal resources
addressing foreclosures and sub-prime lending.
Report on Impact of Foreclosures on Renters
National Low Income Housing Coalition, Research Note #08-01:
Properties, Units, and Tenure in the Foreclosure Crisis: An Initial Analysis of Properties at the End of the Foreclosure Process in New England
(05/2008): Highlights the high number of renters that are likely to be affected by foreclosure in New England.
Enterpise Report on Household Energy Savings
Enterprise,
Bringing Home the Benefits of Energy Efficiency to Low-Income Households: The Case for National Commitment
(05/2008): Outlines potential Federal policy iniatives that could save low-income homeowners on energy costs while creating local "green" jobs.
Joint Center Study on Long-Term Affordability Strategies
Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies,
Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategies in Hot Housing Markets
(05/2008): Provides an inventory of housing strategies used across the US to create and maintain long-term, affordable housing units.
Annual NLIHC Report on Rents
National Low Income Housing Coalition,
Out of Reach Report, 2007-2008
(04/2008): NLIHC's annual report on the wages needed to afford housing, by state and metro areas.
Pew Charitable Report on the Response to Foreclosures
Pew Charitable Trusts,
Defaulting on the Dream: States Respond to America's Foreclosure Crisis
(04/2008): Analyzes US states' approaches to the foreclosure crises.
Boston Foreclosure Trends
City of Boston Department of Neighborhood Development,
2007 Foreclosure Trends
(04/2008): This annual report on Boston's foreclosure trends highlights the 169% increase in foreclosures from 2006 to 2007, and the geographic concentration of the problem.
Joint Center Report on US Rental Housing Demand and Supply
Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies,
America's Rental Housing: The Key to a Balanced National Policy
(04/2008): Highlights recent rental housing supply shortages brought on by the impact of foreclosures on rental properties, and the lack of capital to build new rental housing.
Center for Housing Policy Report on Inclusionary Zoning
Center for Housing Policy,
The Effects of Inclusionary Zoning on Local Housing Markets: Lessons from the San Francisco, Washington DC and Suburban Boston Areas
(03/2008): Finds that inclusionary zoning has minimal impact on overlal housing production or prices, but also does produce a large number of affordable units.
CHAPA Briefing on State Resources for Long-Term Housing Affordability
Citizens' Housing and Planning Association,
Building the Stock: Targeted Project-Based Rental Assistance to Create More Deeply Affordable Permanent Housing
(03/2008) Proposes state expanded or new Massachusetts state initiatives that would increase the availability of project-based housing for ver-low income households.
CHAPA Briefing on Foreclosure Prevention Efforts
Citizens' Housing and Planning Association Briefing Paper,
Addressing the Foreclosure Crisis: State and Federal Initiatives in Massachusetts
(03/2008): Outlines the current state of the foreclosure crisis and the programs that have been put into place to address it.
MCBC Annual Report on Mortgage Lending Patterns
Massachusetts Community & Banking Council,
Changing Patterns XIV: Mortgage Lending to Traditionally Underserved Borrowers & Neighborhoods in Boston, Greater Boston and Massachusetts, 2006
(02/2008): This annual look at mortgage lending finds that racial/ethnic disparities in mortgage lending continue to exist, and draws on new data on subprime lending to highlight the concentration of such lending in low-income communities of color.
City of Boston "Leading the Way" Update
City of Boston,
Leading the Way II Completion Report
(01/2008): reports on the 4-year Leading the Way II imitative, including surpassing the goal of permitting over 10,000 new housing units.
Homelessness Research Institute of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Vital Mission: Ending Homelessness Among Veterans
Homelessness Research Institute of the National Alliance to End Homelessness,
Vital Mission: Ending Homelessness Among Veterans
(11/2007): Veterans make up 26% of the homeless population and are twice as likely as other homeless people to be chronically homeless. The 2006 rate of homeslessness for Massachusetts veterans is higher than 26 other states, and has the ninth highest level of severe housing cost burden for veterans.
Office of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, The American Dream Shattered: The Dream of Homeownership and the Reality of Predatory Lending
Office of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley,
The American Dream Shattered: The Dream of Homeownership and the Reality of Predatory Lending
(11/2007): Provides summary of findings from research and public hearings on sub-prime lending and the resulting changes to Massachusetts consumer protection regulations.
Annual Greater Boston Housing Report Card
Boston Foundation releases
Greater Boston Housing Report card for 2006-2007
(10/2007): The fifth annual survey of the state of housing in Greater Boston provides a sobering overview of the region’s economy at a time when stresses—eroding home values, a tighter mortgage market, flat or falling incomes and a sharp decline in housing starts—add up to a “perfect housing storm,” according to Barry Bluestone, a co-author of the report.
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