I had the opportunity to attend Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership’s (MBHP) 12th annual Property Owner Appreciation Evening a few weeks ago. It was good to talk to other property owners to hear what they are doing. I picked up some interesting information from MBHP officials and the keynote speaker, Barry Bluestone:
- MBHP distributes around $10,000,000 in housing assistance every month.
- They’ve expanded to support 32 communities in the Boston area.
- There are over 519 families in motel shelters.
- America is aging. For example, around 16% of metro Boston residents are over the age of 65 today. By 2030, over 33% of metro Boston residents will be over the age of 65.
- It may be obvious, but there is a strong correlation between vacancy rates and the rent rate.
- Corresponding to this trend and low vacancy rate in Boston, the average value of a triple decker has increased 46% since 2005.
- There will be 4,000,000 square feet of residential real estate vacant nationally by 2030.
These are all interesting trends as we watch the Baby Boomer generation age and change how they live. In other places, I’ve listened to how Millennials (the largest generation ever) either cannot afford to buy or do not want to buy housing, are returning to cities (urbanization), and are living in smaller and smaller places. What I haven’t seen is how the housing stock left over from the Baby Boomer generation will be absorbed by Millenials. Those of us who are Generation Xers don’t get much notice in the whole analysis!