Just a few years ago, Boston’s skyline was dotted with cranes, the visual manifestation of a building boom reshaping the city.
Today, those cranes are all but gone. And construction, particularly of new housing, has fallen sharply. Amid a shortage that has driven rents skyward and pushed some residents from the city, less new housing began construction in 2023 and 2024 than in any year since 2011, city data show. Nationally, Boston is building fewer homes than many other peer cities, including Seattle and Washington, D.C.
It is a difficult reality for Mayor Michelle Wu, who, as a candidate, made tackling the city’s housing crisis a top priority. Four years later, development has slowed, and rents have gone up by roughly 12 percent.
Source: Is Boston’s housing construction dip caused by city policy?
