Greater Boston housing report card is ‘sobering’

When the Boston Foundation presented its 2024 annual Greater Boston housing report card at an event Nov. 12, the results weren’t particularly positive. “This year’s housing report is certainly sobering, it offers further evidence of the challenges we continue to face,” said M. Lee Pelton, president and CEO of the Boston Foundation. Housing costs have risen greatly since 2015, and while the report found that rent costs have plateaued, they had leveled off at historic highs. At the same time, despite some efforts to support new construction, high construction costs have slowed production. A modest increase in the number of permits issued in the 2010s has given way to another slowdown.