May 22, 2023
ECONOMY

Has Massachusetts lost its economic mojo?

Larry Edelman ,

The Boston Globe

But I like its latest report — a package of charts — because it highlights the full range of challenges facing the state. Here are some of the data points I found noteworthy.

On housing costs:

  • Massachusetts had the lowest apartment vacancy rate in the country at 2.8 percent in 2022.
  • Boston had the second-highest (after New York) median asking rents in March, $3,839 a month, up 4.6 percent from a year earlier.
  • The ranks of Suffolk and Middlesex County renters earning more than $150,000 a year have more than doubled since 2016, suggesting that buying a home is out of reach even for people with solid six-figure incomes.