Greater Boston Needs 300,000 to 435,000 more homes

                          Greater Boston Needs 300,000 to 435,000 more homes

Our concept is to build a sustainable community. Building safe, affordable, energy efficient housing while creating jobs and jobs training programs for those at the bottom rung of the social and economic ladder is the heart of program. The two most critical issues facing us as a neighborhood, a city, a state and our country is the security of shelter and food.Those struggling children, individuals and families tying to take one step up on the ladder of economic stability and mobility need a hand up, not a hand-out.. The goal is to build a highly energy efficient, self sustaining 21st century community equipped with the tools to educate and inspire innovation, entrepreneurship and steady fulfilling work. 

Housing pressures, already enormous, will only increase. We must make sure that the working families that have been here for generations as well as newcomers looking for work and opportunity in the Greater Boston area are not excluded. 

The following is a quick over view of housing conditions facing us today in the greater Boston area.
The graph illustrates some  achievable goals to make our sustainable community happen.

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) is a regional planning agency serving the people who live and work in the 101 cities and towns of Metro Boston. Our mission is to promote smart growth and regional collaboration

 

(NECN: Peter Howe, Boston) - We’re always known super-expensive Greater Boston needs way more affordable housing. But Thursday regional planning experts put an astonishing new number on just how many new housing units the region will need by 2040 to keep the economy growing and accommodating new workers to replace retiring Baby Boomers: 300,000 to 435,000 more houses, apartments, condos, townhouses and micro-units.

"We have a lot of baby boomers who are likely to retire at an increasing pace over the course of the next few decades," said Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, which conducted the study. "They're going to be leaving their jobs, and we need young workers to fill in those jobs if our economy's going to remain strong … We're going to have to have a place for those workers to live, and that means building more housing in the city of Boston, around the city of Boston, and even in urbanized areas in the suburbs, village centers, near commuter rail stations and other places."

 

But just how big a number is 435,000 housing units? According to Census Bureau data, that is as much housing as now exists in Boston, Quincy, Cambridge, Somerville, Chelsea, and Revere – combined. (The Census Bureau website showed as of 2010 272,481 housing units in Boston, 42,838 in Quincy, 47,291 in Cambridge, 33,720 in Somerville, 12,621 in Chelsea, and 22,100 in Revere.) Imagine the total housing stock in Boston and those five neighboring cities – and that’s what has to be built, all over again, over the next 26 years, according to the MAPC’s scenario that envisions the strongest economic growth.

Gregory Vasil, president of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, considers that goal extraordinarily difficult to reach. "It's going to be difficult, and I think we're going to have to change in terms of the kind of product and the kind of housing that we look into," Vasil said, with much more willingness for developers to build and residents to buy more land-efficient townhomes, apartments, and multi-until residential living. That, in turn, will require dozens of communities making big changes in what they’ll allow to be built and where within their borders.

 

 

 

 

 

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One way to achieve the initial goal of shelter and food security for a limited number of individuals (as a starting point), is to build a single mixed use facility to house homeless children and families (with daycare available), and homeless veterans in another portion of the facility. Training programs in construction and food production technologies will be available to start these individuals on a path to a real job with a real paycheck.
"The median home value in Boston is $463,000. Boston home values have gone up 6.8% over the past year and Zillow predicts they will rise 1.7% within the next year. The median rent price in Boston is $2,600, which is higher than the Boston Metro median of $2,500"

 

In order to move forwarded toward our goal of sustainable community we must not only be able to meet the challenge of  the market but to take advantage of it. By training office staff and mechanics to not only build this housing, but to be leaders in the community.

The median price to build a new home in the Boston area spring of 2015 is approx $150.00 sq ft. In order to construct a  handicapped accessible  mixed use dwelling, containing separate living quarters, two full kitchens (one handicapped accessible), 4- full baths, 4- 1/2 baths, small office and dining/recreational  spaces,directs us to a building 28 ft in width, x 50 ft. in length + exterior porch, deck, and accessible ramps. These requirements are in excess of the Boston median price and bring us to approx $200.00 sq. ft. At 28' x 50' is 1400 sq' ft' per level. Proposing 2 levels above grade and a 3rd full basement level for educational access, ie training classes and computer center, brings our total to 4200sq.ft. @ $200.00 per2ft = $840, 000.00. Below are samples of the types of building to be constructed as suitable for the neighborhood and landscape of the property.