Report  Supply and Production - Table of Contents

This section will do an assessment of the current housing stock in Massachusetts by answering two key questions: how many homes do we have, and where? While the total numbers are important this report will dive deeper into the specific types of housing, the demographics of who owns or rents the current stock, and what set asides are provided within the total units in the Commonwealth for specific populations. There is also information about how many housing units have been brought online in recent decades versus the amount of older stock and who is (or isn’t) living in them. Finally, the current supply assessment provides useable reference point for current vacancy rates exploring how many units are actually available for sale or rent, and how many are kept off the market for other uses. On the production side, this section will explore what are the barriers to the development of more – and more diverse—kinds of housing in MA and the ongoing efforts to evaluate these barriers through the Unlocking Housing Production Commission and other initiatives. Key findings include the following:

• Massachusetts has over 3 million homes, of which about 57% are in single family homes and the remainder is in multifamily buildings.
• The state has an substantial inventory of housing for low-income residents: 187,000 privately-owned affordable homes, and over 70,000 homes in public housing.  Together these comprise about 8.4% of the total housing stock.
• Housing production over recent decades hasn’t kept up with housing demand; as a result, the share of homes available for sale or rent has shrunk to only 1.6%, a historically low vacancy rate. This creates intense competition for the homes that are available.
• The state added 19,000 units per year from 2010 to 2020, but only 11,600 homes were issued building permits in 2023. People seeking to build new homes faces many challenges such as restrictive zoning, elevated construction and operation costs, high expectations from investors, lack of water and wastewater infrastructure, and increasing demands for sustainability, affordability, and design.