Land costs, labor drive Boston-area housing prices out of control . Blue America Says No to Middle Class People Through Zoning.

The Boston Globe reports:

Boston will be stuck in an endless housing crunch, despite adding tens of thousands of new residences in the past few years, unless it finds a way to curb the rapidly increasing cost of building here, a Boston Foundation report to be released Friday finds.

The study found that surging land costs, along with the already-high price of labor and materials, make it nearly impossible for developers to build new housing most Boston-area residents can afford.

Left unchecked, the report’s authors said, the trend could turn the Boston area into a land mainly of luxury and low-income housing, with no home for the middle.

“We’ve gotten into extreme territory in terms of lack of affordability here,” said Boston Foundation chief executive Paul Grogan. “We need to get serious about this.”

The average 1,600 square-foot apartment today costs more than $438,000 to build, said Barry Bluestone, a Northeastern University professor who authored the report.

“You’re just out of the ballpark for any working family,” said Bluestone, who heads Northeastern’s Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy. “The cost is so high that the only construction developers can put up and not lose their shirt is either high luxury or heavily subsidized for the very poor.”

No middle class life-style for you in Blue America! You've been zoned out. With Professor Bluestone's comment you understand the Blue coalition : the rich and the subsidized poor. It's not your father's Democrat party.