Not that this project was ever billed as a plan to bring housing costs down, But I wonder if these extravagant prices will simply add more fuel to the NIMBY fire. These high rise projects will be taken as proof that new construction doesn’t help prices or even drives prices up. To the casual observer, that may seem like a pretty persuasive argument. Since the direct result of new construction is expensive units and the benefits are largely indirect and abstract (filtering or waiting 20 years for the class A to turn to class B).
DC is an example of a high COL that has built enough to at least stabilize prices (temporarily). But, DC has had an apartment construction boom many times larger than the current Boston boom and the city has been helped by sequestration and a willingness to push development in the neighborhoods. Prices are still high in DC, but the benefits of new construction are tangible to at least the childless 80k crowd. There are literally a few dozen new 200+ unit 5-12 story buildings that have opened since 2010. People can see supply and demand in action as the new buildings compete against the older buildings to lease up. DC needs to do more, but at least it isn’t like SF or NYC where the development is so insufficient relative to demand that new construction almost seems pointless to many.
Hopefully, Boston gets aggressive about encouraging development outside the Back Bay/DT/Seaport core to complement the downtown towers.