Real Estate

Boston's planning agency will soon lose its authority over most city planning, Mayor Michelle Wu said last night in her first State of the City address.

Driving the news: Wu said she'll sign an executive order today establishing a new advisory council as a precursor to a new department that will take over many of the Boston Planning and Development Agency’s responsibilities.

Boston’s real estate market isn’t poised for a crash in 2023.

Here's what Larry Rideout, chairman and co-owner of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty, says to expect instead.

An uncertain economy is fueling the highest commercial real estate vacancy rate in Boston in over a decade, according to several of the city's top brokers.

Driving the news: Commercial vacancies were over 15% in Boston and the asking price of rents fell 1.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022, brokerage firm JLL reported last week.

Massachusetts is one of the least popular destinations for one-way rentals, according to the country’s largest moving truck rental company.

The big picture: Data from U-Haul shows that people are fleeing the Northeast for warmer areas.

It's no secret that Massachusetts' population far outpaces its housing stock. But new estimates from the D.C.-based Bipartisan Policy Center show how stark the gap is.

What's happening: The number of single-family housing permit approvals dropped by nearly half between the 2000s and the 2010s, according to the BPC's data.

More than half a million Massachusetts residents qualify for housing assistance, yet the state is serving fewer than half of them because of a lack of funding.

Why it matters: The gap has exacerbated the region's housing crisis, prompting families to double up in apartments or to turn to the state's maxed-out emergency shelter system, a new report says.

The tight housing market is beginning to slacken, if only slightly.

Driving the news: Realtor RE/MAX's October report showed 30.7% fewer closings around the country than in the same time period in 2021, with 36.8% more homes on the market.

Part of the Wu administration's $60 million investment in affordable housing options is available to locals now — or at least whenever mortgage rates start to dip again.

Catch up fast: The Wu administration announced in mid-November it's dedicating federal aid from the American Rescue Plan to fund the development of income-restricted housing on 150 parcels and to bolster existing homeownership assistance programs.