No clue on the data, but it’s a noticeable trend. The best way to delay gentrification is to build both luxury and market rate housing in the most desireable areas.

You need enough on the market in the most sought after areas to meet and exceed demand - otherwise they will look elsewhere. It can’t be all luxury or more people will be priced out - but luxury is needed to provide that higher price point and prevent further increases to existing housing. Places like seaport are needed - although high end rentals are really not as helpful imo.

As others have mentioned, transit oriented areas will ALWAYS be the first to gentrify. This can’t and shouldn’t be avoided. If someone on DOT is priced out of an area close to the T I know it sucks - but that same gentrification creates jobs, eases traffic and is generally a net positive. Affordable housing is generally less accessible housing - that’s a worldwide truth.

It’s important to step back and look at what is causing things to happen as they do. Boston is experiencing economic growth in high end sectors like biotech and finance - this brings in lots of high paying workers. This drives up costs for existing “nice” areas and prices out the people who may have bought there.

As a result, people who may have in the past bought in the “nicer” areas look for cheaper options. As they buy up real estate in less affluent areas it drives up prices, businesses come as the money comes, and there you have it - gentrification. This is normal and expected anytime a city is in a growth cycle. So how do you stop it?

More property is the obvious answer. Affordable housing may seem like the best option and it certainly has its place, but that really just increases the gap in neighborhoods and causes more people to need affordable housing. So while it helps, what you really need is more market rate housing - not luxury, but market rate - in existing “nicer” areas. This keeps slows the process of gentrification.

There is no easy answer. No short term fix. And at the end of the day, gentrification can’t be stopped, and won’t be stopped. But there are things that help - and the easiest and fastest is more market rate housing.