BOSTON-The construction of multifamily housing is outpacing the number of single-family homes being built in Metropolitan Boston to meet the region's housing demands, studies of the area's housing market show. "Throughout the metropolitan area, there are 600 projects with 50,000 units under development right now," Thomas Meagher, with Northeast Apartment Advisors Inc., tells GlobeSt.com. Meagher, who developed a report detailing the region's condominium boom, says demand for multifamily units is so strong, in fact, that in Boston, Brookline and Cambridge alone, 146 condominium projects are currently in the pipeline.
According to US Census data, developers in Suffolk County took out more than 1,300 permits last year to build multifamily units. Only 111 single-family permits were issued in Suffolk County during the last 12 months. That trend holds true for the entire metropolitan region except Plymouth County. In Middlesex County, multifamily permits were up about 40% over permits for single-family dwellings last year while in Essex County, nearly 500 more multifamily homes were permitted than single-family residences. In Norfolk County, which is more rural, developers took out permits for more than 1,450 multifamily projects compared with 1,000 permits for single-family homes.
Meagher says the trend reflects the area's high housing prices which have put single-family home ownership out of the reach of many buyers. "The starter home in Massachusetts is no longer a home, it's a condominium," says Meagher, noting that the demand for multifamily units along with the area's restrictive zoning and high land and development costs has kept the region's housing prices high.
In Boston, Brookline and Cambridge alone, 2005 was a record breaking year for condominium sales with $3.48 billion in properties changing hand at an average price of $501,957 per unit. That sales price was up over 2004 when the average unit sold for $493,995. That trend is likely to continue, Meagher notes, as the area's baby boomers move to downsize their large suburban homes in favor of more carefree condo living.
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