Resources

In this report, the Commonwealth Housing Task Force describes a severe housing affordability problem that has an impact both on low and moderate income households and scientists, engineers, doctors and business people in Massachusetts. The authors argue that the housing problem is affecting the future economic stability of the state. Further, they contend that the problem is not caused by a lack of financing or land but results from restrictive zoning, which results from local governments’ fear of the adverse impact on town finances that will result from development.

Analysis indicates that, for many Massachusetts communities, population growth associated with new housing is not inevitably followed by increased demand for services and higher municipal costs. While overall costs will increase with growth, per capita costs often increase less or decrease. Many of our fastest-growing communities experienced the slowest growth in per capita tax burden during the 1990s. In fact, there seems to be little correlation between increases in per capita costs and increases in population, and it seems that municipal services are generally increasing in cost regardless of the rate of population growth. This finding suggests that the standard models relied upon by cities and towns to estimate the fiscal impact of development may be systematically overestimating these costs in many communities. Given the shortage of affordable housing throughout Massachusetts and that these estimates are frequently used as the basis for decision making by local development agencies, it is clear that the methods communities use to estimate the costs of development must be reconsidered.

In October 2000, a report released by the Executive Office for Administration and Finance highlighted impediments to housing development and proposed a special commission be created to recommend statutory, regulatory and operational changes to reduce undeeded barrier to housing development. This report is a product of that Special Commission on Barriers to Housing Development.

Published by The Center for Urban and Regional Policy (CURP) at Northeastern University, this report brought forth new ideas for how to increase the region's housing stock to meet demand and moderate market prices. The report identified the need for constructing 36,000 additional new units of housing in Greater Boston over the next five years.

Published by the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance, this report examines housing trends and barriers to housing production and lays out a program of initiatives to remove unnecessary barriers to the development of housing affordable across a broad range of incomes.

This report, written by Karl Case of Wellesley College and Robert Shiller of Yale University, addresses the boom and bust in prices of single-family homes in Boston and Los Angeles from 1983 to 1993.