Franklin County is one of Massachusetts’ least populous and most rural regions. While housing prices are relatively low compared to the rest of the state, incomes in the region are also lower, resulting in substantial cost burden. The aging housing stock is a significant issue: about 36% of homes were built before 1940 and likely need upgrades; and 4.4% of homes are vacant for other reasons such as disrepair. Seasonal housing units are also an issue in some towns, comprising 3.5% of the total housing stock in the region. The population of the region is projected to decline over the coming decade, but new homes are needed to accommodate decreasing household size; compensate for the loss of older, derelict homes; mitigate conversion from year-round to seasonal uses; and achieve a healthy vacancy rate. EOHLC projects that the region may need as many as 1,100 new homes over the next decade. Preservation and rehab of existing homes and creation of dedicated low-income units is a significant need in the region, since the needs for extremely low-income housing exceed the total number of new units needed to achieve housing abundance.
Regional Conditions
The Franklin Regional Council of Governments represents 26 municipalities that make up Franklin County in the northern Connecticut River Valley in Western Massachusetts. Franklin County is the most rural region in the state with 72,000 residents across 725 square miles. The region is home to rich farmland, abundant natural amenities, and small village centers. American Community Survey data indicates that the population of the county has been decreasing at a rate of one person every eight days, the population is aging, and household sizes are decreasing, creating a need to diversify the housing stock in the region.
Compared to the rest of the state, Franklin County has lower incomes and relatively fewer households with wage or salary earnings. Franklin County has consistently had the lowest average annual pay of all counties in the state. In 2024 the average annual wage was $54,200, the lowest of any county and far lower than the statewide average wage of $84,100. As a result, AMI in Franklin County is $104,000 in 2025, compared to $136,200 statewide.
Franklin County also has a relatively less expensive housing supply. In 2023, the median home sale price for single-family homes and condos in Franklin County (as recorded at the registry of deeds) was $287,500, just over half of the statewide median of $520,000 that year. For Franklin County residents with average incomes, good credit, and some savings, homeownership is relatively achievable. According to an analysis of 2023 home sales, a four-person household at 100% of the region’s AMI ($98,600) could have afforded approximately 66% of suitably sized homes that were sold that year. A two-person household at 100% AMI ($79,700) could have afforded about 42% of suitably sized homes sold that same year. These percentages are much higher than the state overall: only 36% of suitable home sales were affordable to a four-person median income household statewide; and only 21% of sales were affordable to a two-person median income household.
Unfortunately, these measures of homeownership affordability are trending in the wrong direction, and they don’t tell the whole story about the cost of housing. Over a ten-year period, the share of affordable sales dropped 28 percentage points for four-person households and dropped by 52 percentage points for 80% AMI households. Households well below 100% of AMI face even longer odds and the analysis does not reflect added costs that result from the age of the housing stock. More than half of the housing was constructed prior to 1960, and many units have not been maintained well. These older homes often require updates to meet today’s needs in terms of access, resilience, efficiency, and safety. This makes it more difficult for moderate-income households to buy or maintain a home.
For renters and low-income households, the situation is more challenging. Renter median income in Franklin County was just $40,700 in 2023. Only 21% of renters earn more than $75,000 per year, compared to 40% across Massachusetts. There are not enough homes affordable to extremely low-income and low-income households, especially renters. The 2024 FRCOG Regional Housing Plan found that in 2023 there was a shortage of 5,200 homes affordable to households below 80% of AMI. As a result, 55% of renters were cost-burdened from 2018 – 2022.
Even though the Franklin County population has been declining, there has been increasing competition for the available homes due to declining household sizes (resulting in household growth), loss of housing stick due to age, and increasing incidence of seasonal units. As of 2018 – 2022, only 0.7% of homes were available for sale or rent, resulting in intense competition and increasing prices for housing and compounding affordability challenges for many in the region. Over the same period, about 1,200 homes, or 3.5% of the total, were used seasonally. As of 2024, there were 233 short-term rentals registered with the DOR and rented on a regular basis, equal to about 0.7% of the total housing stock. (For comparison, short term rentals make up 2.6% of the housing stock in Berkshire County and 10.2% in Barnstable County.) The number of homes vacant for “other” reasons (needs repair, abandoned, family reasons, legal proceedings, etc.) is greater than the number of seasonal homes: nearly 1,500 homes were vacant for “other” reasons in 2018 – 2022. Because 36% of the region’s housing stock was constructed prior to 1939, age and disrepair are the most likely causes of these vacancies.
Projections and Housing Needs
The population of Franklin County has been slowly declining since 2000, having fallen about 0.5% from 2010 to 2020. While the county may have experienced a slight bump in population in 2020 as remote workers relocated to more remote locations during the COVID lockdown, all signs point to declining population moving forward. UMDI population projections created for this plan anticipate population loss of 2.4% to 7.1% over the next ten years. Even the high series scenario (in which the state attracts and retains more young people and in which more of them chose to live in lower-cost regions such as Franklin County) still results in population decline for the region.
In the Competing and Growing scenario used for the plan, the region is projected to see population losses totaling nearly 5,000 from 2025 – 2035, with declines in all age groups under the age of 40, modest increases for those age 40 – 54, declines in the population 55 – 74, and an increase of 3,800 Oldest Adults age 75 or older.
Due to the aging of the population and declining household size, the number of households in the region is projected to remain essentially unchanged in the Housing Plan Projections, falling by less than 1%. However, there are significant changes in the distribution of households by age: Under-40 households are projected to decline; older millennials will push up the number of 40 – 54-year-old householders and aging of the Baby Boomers diminish the number of householders 60 – 74. Households headed by someone 75 or over are projected to grow by more than 2,500, an increase of nearly 48 percent. This growth in the oldest households will put significant strain on health, social, and municipal services and will present a significant challenge for affordability.
Almost all the net household growth will be among low- and moderate-income older adult households, which are projected to increase by nearly 1,000. Non-senior households with no children are projected to decline by 1,200; and families with children are projected to decline across all income groups except for those earning less than $35,000 per year.
Despite a modest decline in households, Franklin County still needs to produce and preserve homes and create additional affordability in the region. EOHLC estimates that the region needs to add at least 211 homes to the supply over the next ten years to achieve a healthy vacancy rate and compensate for seasonal conversion. If the region experiences slower population decline consistent with the high-series projections, it could need as many as 1,100 homes over that same period. For comparison, the Franklin County regional housing plan anticipates the region could absorb 340 – 400 market rate homes over the next five years, or 680 – 800 over ten years.
Planning and Policy Efforts
To preserve, expand, and diversify the housing supply, FRCOG’s regional housing plan identifies a variety of strategies. It calls for increased support for home repairs, both for homeowners and rental homes; and additional actions to address abandoned and distressed housing. To enable production of new homes, the plan recommends updating zoning to enable small-scale multifamily housing types in both new development and retrofits of existing buildings; revising septic system regulations; exploring creative solutions such as off-site construction methods. The plan also recommends regulations to control the spread of short term rentals to preserve existing year-round homes. The plan also advocates for increased adoption of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to create housing diversity.
External Resources:
- Franklin Regional Council of Governments https://frcog.org/
- Franklin County Regional Housing Plan. https://frcog.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/FRCOG-Housing-Plan-FINAL-10.2.24.pdf