Boston residents overwhelmingly dissatisfied with housing costs, poll says

More than 70 percent of Boston voters are at least a little dissatisfied with the city’s housing costs, according to a new Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll. Just under half are “very dissatisfied.”

Moreover, 17.4 percent of voters named housing costs as the issue that concerns them most. And! Some 58.6 percent were at least a little dissatisfied—if not overwhelmingly so—with Boston’s general cost of living.

(Quick aside: Who are the people satisfied with the present cost of things in Boston?)

Such results surprised the poll’s canvassers, per the Globe’s Martin Finucane, but it’s unlikely they surprise anyone who has home-hunted in Boston in recent years.

The city remains one of the three or four most expensive in the U.S. for renting an apartment, and it’s right up there with San Francisco, New York, and maybe a couple of others in terms of buying a home.

And, while residential construction is booming in Boston, the trend is unlikely to bring down costs in the short-term (e.g. the next few years). Meanwhile, the city’s high housing costs will continue to drive out the young and drive up the dissatisfaction.

• It costs a lot to live in Boston — and voters aren’t happy about it [Globe]
• Boston millennials a diverse, educated bunch [Curbed Boston]
• Boston-area rents generally flat from May into June [Curbed Boston]
• 12 Boston developments set to transform the city [Curbed Boston]