04.04.2025

Mass. companies shed tens of billions in market value in a few hours | Once mighty Worcester daily on the skids | Housing starts vanish in Boston as Wu administration regs drive up costs | Save the date: Contrarian Boston forum on the Bay State’s energy crisis set for May 8 | Quick hits |

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Hitting new lows: The slump in housing construction in Boston under Wu has gone from bad to worse while pushing rents and prices higher

After shattering records during the Walsh years, construction of new apartments, condos and homes in Boston has cratered.

The drop-off began in mid-2022 as the Fed jacked up interest rates to battle inflation and as Boston Mayor Michelle Wu shifted city housing policy away from her predecessor’s pro-growth approach.

During her first months in office, Wu unveiled an ultimately unsuccessful plan to bring back a form of rent control, while also vowing to hike affordable housing and energy efficiency requirements for new housing developments.

Michelle Wu, with daughter, before her recent testimony before Congress

And while Walsh had focused on boosting the volume of new housing produced by encouraging private sector development, Wu refocused city efforts on building more public housing.

Now the decline appears to be gaining speed, with City Hall issuing just building permits for just 72 new housing units in March, according to building permit records first obtained by The Boston Guardian.

And it caps a dismal, seven-month run in which housing starts in Boston have fallen to their lowest levels since at least 2018.

Photo by Breno Assis on Unsplash

Overall, developers started work on just a little over 665 housing units from the beginning of September 2024 through the end of March.

That compares to the 2,169 housing starts during the same period in late 2019 and early 2020 during the final days of the Walsh administration, according to city building permit stats.

As Wu gears up to officially launch her reelection campaign on Saturday, the collapse of residential construction under her watch is drawing fire from challenger Josh Kraft.

Rents in Boston, already one of the nation’s most expensive cities to live in, rose another 1.4 percent in March, or more than double the national average, according to Apartment List.

In a statement, Kraft noted that Boston now ranks near the bottom nationally in housing production.