A new report has good news and bad news for Massachusetts’ housing goals

by Nik DeCosta-Klipa, wbur News

Circumstances permitting: Earlier this year, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration set a goal for Massachusetts: 222,000 new homes by 2035. That’s what Healey’s office estimates it will take to get out of the current housing shortage that is making it so expensive to live here. In a preview released yesterday of its annual Greater Boston Housing Report Card, think tank Boston Indicators dug into recent home address and permitting data and found a mix of good news and bad news when it comes to our chances of hitting that goal.

• The good news: Massachusetts actually put a “decent” dent in the shortage in recent years, Boston Indicators executive director Luc Schuster told WBUR’s John Bender. From April 2020 to July 2025, the state’s housing stock increased by 97,656 units. That includes 71,135 units in Greater Boston. And a big chunk of those homes arrived in the last year; between July 2024 and July 2025, the state added just over 40,000 new housing units, including 29,000 in the Boston area.
• The other good news: After several years of steep rental and home sales price increases, Schuster noted that there has been “a bit of a leveling off” in 2025. (According to Zillow, home values are up just 1.2% this year and the average rent is actually slightly down.) “ That does signal that when we build significantly more housing, we can start to move the needle on price increases,” Schuster said.
• OK, now the bad news: While the recent home address data gives the impression the state is picking up the pace of construction, a more recent drop in permits suggests a slowdown in the near future. Schuster said many of the recent developments were permitted in 2021 or 2022, when borrowing costs were at historic lows. But this year, new construction permits in Massachusetts are down 44% compared to 2021.  ”The permits are really useful as a leading indicator for how much more housing might come online in the coming two or three years,” Schuster said. “And when you look at that data, the story’s really concerning.”
• Now what? In addition to increased interest rates, Schuster said construction is facing “real headwinds” due to tariffs and labor shortages. He said state and local lawmakers should “ do everything they can” to make it easier to build, such as easing local zoning rules to allow more multi-family homes.  ”The vast majority of land in Massachusetts is restricted for only constructing large, single-family homes,” he said. “This is the most expensive type of housing … and we’ve set local rules that say that’s legally the only type of housing you can build.”