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Job Growth Linked to Housing Supply

Posted by: Nate Berg

3 January 2009 - 11:00am

Job growth is slower in areas that don't have enough housing, according to a new study.

"Housing production - more than home prices or tax levels - is among the most important factors in promoting long-term job growth, a new study concludes. The study, for the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, a quasi-public development agency, analyzed economic conditions in more than 200 US metropolitan areas and found that Greater Boston's failure to build enough housing contributed to its subpar job growth in recent years."

"Boston expanded its housing stock about 6 percent in the 1990s, compared to an average of more than 16 percent among all metropolitan areas, according to the study."

"In the first seven years of this decade, Boston lost jobs at an annual rate of 0.5 percent. Nationally, metropolitan areas gained jobs at an annual rate of 0.6 percent."

"Basically, the lack of housing makes it harder to attract new people, particularly young, educated workers considered critical to the knowledge economy, the study said. Without a growing population and labor force, regional economies won't grow very much."

Full Story: Study finds housing key to job growth
Source: The Boston Globe, January 2, 2009
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One great asset of this part of town, and other older neighborhoods across America, is something as simple as sidewalks, which make it easier to break out of your private sphere by taking a walk and talking to neighbors. That's an impossible dream in many new subdivisions.
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