Boston area population lost 2020-2021 (apartments, rental, how much)

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Until the jobs stop coming to Boston because there are no workers left to fill them.

Do you foresee that happening anytime soon?

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Do you foresee that happening anytime soon?

The trend is already happening, with more and more tech jobs migrating to other cities. Unless it starts figuring out how on a regional level to make itself more hospitable to workers and their families, the time will come when it is not bringing in enough new people to replace the ones dying off and fleeing. How long before that happens, is anybody's guess.

[Space_League]

... San Bernardino? Not a place I was expecting to see near the top of the domestic migration list.

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Until the jobs stop coming to Boston because there are no workers left to fill them.

That's when they get Congress to unlock the foreign visa cap.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by id77

That's not a city thing. What makes a place a city and what makes a place hostile to families aren't related or dependent on another. There's also rural and suburban areas hostile to families.

What you should pinpoint and call out is what that hostility is. Is it cost of living? Then the problem is cost, not being a city. Is it poor schools? Then the problem is poor schools, not being a city.

COL, poor schools, abundant bike lanes taking away car lanes, bussing. Thats hostile. Boston si one of the most childless cities in the US only SF is worse I think. Surely wasnt always that way.

Many school districts in the south adn west have or middle-class students and white students because its county-wide school system with many "suburban" characteristics. See Nashville or Charlotte. People of means can actually utilize the public schools.

[msRB311]

Boston does have some very undesirable things about it that no one seems interested in fixing - mbta, rent/housing costs, BPS, lack of places to park and crazy prices for what parking is available.

None of these problems matter to wealthy people because they don't use them. But these things do matter to many people and they are the reason people are leaving.

[AtkinsonDan]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

Basically any new office construction project that was proposed before the pandemic started is being changed to be lab space plus existing office space is being converted. There's apparently enough demand that they are having little difficulty finding tenants too.

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

I doubt it will be enough to reverse the losses. People moved and many won’t be able to afford to move back, not a ton of people who went WFH will be in 5 days a week. Labs aren’t as labor intensive as offices. The dispersion of high paying tech salaries to other cities…

I was going to make that same point. Lab space generally has a much lower per person occupancy than office space. Comparing lab space to office space could be like comparing single family home neighborhoods to apartment building neighborhoods.

[simplexsimon]

The comparison is being made between lab space and unoccupied office space.

[msRB311]

I don't think lab space is going to be a reason people start moving back here in droves but ok.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by AtkinsonDan

I was going to make that same point. Lab space generally has a much lower per person occupancy than office space. Comparing lab space to office space could be like comparing single family home neighborhoods to apartment building neighborhoods.

Right. I've made this point many times on different thread. labs only pay a small number of people the super-high salaries needed to afford to live in Boston as a newcomer.

And they're wide and squat and thus can hurt the vibrancy of a streetscape compared to commercial or even office or residential space... It cant "save" Boston. Especially not if it's going to have to increasiingly compete with NYC Philly Raleigh Austin and others..