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Boston nails huge hike in permits for housing
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/2015/07/boston_nails_huge_hike_in_permits_for_housingBoston nails huge hike in permits for housing
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Donna Goodison
Permits for Boston housing units grew by a whopping 40 percent to 2,461 for the first half of 2015 compared to the same period last year, with related estimated construction costs up 138 percent to $1.65 billion, the Walsh administration touted yesterday.
“Not only was it an important number to us because it represents a ton of construction jobs, but ... there really was a nice mix of housing types,” said Sheila Dillon, the city’s housing chief and director of the Department of Neighborhood Development.
The bulk of the housing starts — 1,399 or 56.8 percent of the total units — were unrestricted market-rate housing units in the Hub’s higher-end neighborhoods.
Forty-three percent of the housing starts were for units affordable to low- or middle-income households. Deed-restricted affordable units accounted for 18 percent or 451 of the total, a 25 percent spike from 2014 and 80 percent jump from 2013. They included 64 homeless units, 130 low-income units and 257 middle-income units. Another 611 of the housing starts were unrestricted middle-income units in more affordable Boston neighborhoods, according to the DND.