Report  Supply and Production - Table of Contents

This section provides an assessment of the current housing stock in Massachusetts by addressing two key questions: how many homes exist, and where are they located? 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. The assessment also addresses the number of housing units constructed in recent decades versus and who is (or isn’t) living in them. Finally, the current supply assessment provides a useable reference point for vacancy rates by exploring current units available for sale or rent, along with those that are kept off the market for other uses. On the production side, we explore existing barriers to creating diverse housing in Massachusetts and 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; approximately 57% are single family homes and the remainder are in multifamily buildings.
• The state has a substantial inventory of housing for low-income residents: there are en estimated 144,000 privately-owned affordable homes, and over 71,000 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 available homes for sale or rent have 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 received building permits in 2023. People seeking to build new homes face many challenges including restrictive zoning, elevated construction and operation costs, high expectations from investors, lack of water and wastewater infrastructure, and increasing sustainability, affordability, and design requirements.