Dems failing neediest Mass. schools | New housing construction implodes in Boston | Newton chamber chief blasts key city councilor | Boston magazine's posterior-kissing list of local luminaries |

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From bad to worse: As housing construction in Boston hits new lows, fed up business leaders call for the Wu administration to take action

Another month, another dismal report from the front lines of Boston’s increasingly futile battle to rein in record-high home prices and rents.

Boston issued building permits for just 852 new residential units during the first six months of 2025, according to city numbers first obtained by the Boston Guardian.

It marked the worst start since at least 2018 and a 27 percent drop from 2024’s anemic numbers.

The plunge in construction of new condos, apartments, and homes comes as the Wu administration has ramped up tough new affordable housing and energy efficiency mandates for new projects amid one of the worst development markets since the Great Recession.

By comparison, City Hall issued permits for nearly 2,200 new units during the first half of 2018, during the tail end of now former Mayor Marty Walsh’s final term in office.

Photo by Breno Assis on Unsplash

Since then, residential construction has plunged and prices have surged as supply has failed to keep up with demand for new apartments, condos, and homes in the city.

Boston housing values have shot up by roughly 50 percent since the first months of 2020, when Walsh left Boston to become U.S. labor secretary, according to a house price index published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which tracks all sale transactions.

By contrast, the index rose by 24 percent during Walsh’s seven years in office, which was marked by a record amount of housing and commercial development.

Faced with the grim new numbers, the head of one of Boston’s top real estate trade groups is calling upon Boston Mayor Michelle Wu to make it easier and more predictable for housing developers to get a green light for new projects, and to ease costly new affordable housing requirements.

“When you start a project, you want to deliver it for a certain market,” Greg Vasil, CEO of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, told Contrarian Boston, adding, “it can take years to get stuff permitted.”

City officials, for example, could guarantee that would-be housing developers can receive permits in a reasonable period of time, say 12-15 months, compared to the years-long slog they now face, Vasil said.

The Wu administration could also cut the number of affordable units - rented or sold at below market rates - which developers are required to include in every new project, Vasil said.

In particular, city officials should consider lowering that percentage to 13 percent, down from 20 percent now, Vasil said.

Greg Maynard, executive director of the Boston Policy Institute, also argued for a lowering of the city’s affordability requirements.

Maynard noted that the city’s own analysis a few years ago predicted that new residential construction would not “pencil out in much of the city,” but that the Wu administration went ahead and implemented it anyway.

Tamara Small, CEO of NAIOP Massachusetts, said the collapse in housing production in Boston can’t be blamed on any single policy change or rule.

Rather, it has to do with a much broader set of rules, regulations, and conditions that have driven up the cost of building housing in Boston to $1 million a unit.

“A comprehensive review of all local regulations and requirements affecting development in Boston needs to be done and it must be done immediately,” Small said. “The current system is hindering housing production and economic development. The numbers clearly illustrate this.”

“The future of not just the city, but the entire Commonwealth, depends on it,” she added.

For his part, Jay Doherty, chief executive of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, said he is voting with his feet and looking to other cities to build, beyond Boston.

“Boston, like much of the region, is entirely out of touch with the realities of the world right now,” Doherty said. “There is no tweak or new policy that can fix it.”

The ultimate in posterior kissing: Boston magazine’s annual list of the 150 “most influential Bostonians” is truly something to behold

If there is one thing our conformist local media excels at, it’s posterior kissing and deference, sometimes subtle, sometimes not so much, to the powers that be.

Boston magazine’s yearly list of the region’s most “influential” people is very much in the latter category.

We plead guilty to being a little late to the party here - the list was released this spring - but the (comic) appeal is truly timeless.