Last spring, the City of Boston announced “Housing Boston 2020,” an ambitious initiative to add as many as 30,000 new housing units to the metro area in the next six years.
As he unveiled the plan back in March, Mayor Thomas Menino stated, “We can literally see the fast speed at which our housing market is growing. New units are springing up across our city, bringing new residents and new vitality to our neighborhoods.”
The Mayor added that the housing supply in Boston has rocketed faster than at any other time over the past five decades, with the creation of 20,000 housing units between 2000 and 2010. This growth is needed to keep pace with the city’s escalating population, which topped 600,000 in 2010 for the first time since the seventies.
Entering 2014, we can already see dramatic evidence of the initiative’s efforts. It seems everywhere you look construction is in progress or new apartment buildings have just been raised. According to the Boston Business Journal (BBJ), ribbons were scheduled to be cut on at least nine major new real estate developments in Boston in 2013, with many more on the horizon for 2014.
New Developments Include Furnished Apartments
The website for Downtown Boston lists a wide range of in-progress development projects with estimated completion dates in 2014, including both renovations and new creations. Corporate apartments and other temporary furnished apartments are in the mix, offering renters more choices to “fill unique housing needs” through short-term rentals, as reported by NY1. Furnished apartments also offer resident guests a more economical alternative to pricey hotel stays, with Boston among the top four cities seeing the highest hotel hikes nationwide, according to USA Today.
The new development is spread throughout key areas of Boston, from the Seaport District to the Back Bay and beyond. The BBJ noted Boston’s real estate boom includes “a Downtown Crossing renaissance,” as buildings with hundreds of units spring up east of Boston Common and west of the Financial District. Among the construction projects is a 58-story residential tower that in 2014 will become the third-tallest building in Boston’s skyline.
Raleigh Werner, co-founder at Jumpshell, predicted on BostonInno that 2014 will see Boston “continue to be one of the most vibrant apartment rental markets in the United States.” Jumpshell expects the year ahead to see an occupancy rate of nearly 97 percent, with demand for rental apartments continuing to increase.
Keith Munsell 
