I thought we were talking about Boston

I think his point is that Austin managed more housing in the same period. But Austin is also a very different geography than Boston. Austin covers 300 sq miles of land and has a population density of 3200/sq mile Boston covers 50 sq miles and has a population density of 14,000/sq mile.

Well it refutes his point that “it was Covid/supply issues”. And which City has seen rents fall by over 20% from their Covid peak and which has rents up? Boston is not some special little snowflake. Boston massively under builds bc, unlike Austin, it has not reformed its zoning.

Actually, geography matters quite a lot. Where do you think Austin is building all that housing?

Have you not seen the before-after pictures of the Austin skyline? And fine, let’s use Tokyo as a comparison. Tokyo produces about 1 unit per 100 residents vs Boston at 1 per 500 residents. So don’t even start with the “wE’Re aLL bUIlT oUt”

My point, which you seem to have entirely missed, is that neither Tokyo nor Austin is comparable to Boston in terms of geology, local economy, or zoning regulations

Tokyo covers 850 sq mi. I don't think I said "we're all built out". There just happen to be more challenges to building up in Boston proper. The best land for densifying is outside the city limits. Hostile takeover of Brookline, anyone? 😉