Today's Housing Challenges
The housing challenges facing Massachusetts continue to evolve, as do MassHousing’s responses to them.
Massachusetts Households are Cost-Burdened
The number of households considered cost-burdened continues to grow. 25% of middle-income households and 75% of very low-income households pay more than 30% of their income on housing. Teachers, nurses, service industry workers and single-parent households need more options.
MassHousing’s Response: Financing mixed-income rental housing has been central to MassHousing’s mission since our creation in 1966. There is a need to build all types of housing to serve residents across a range of incomes. Through programs like BILD (Bringing Innovation to Lending and Development), MassHousing creates financing solutions for market-oriented, mixed-income rental housing construction to catalyze private capital investment. BILD is just the latest in a long line of creative financing programs that MassHousing has brought to market over the past 60 years.
Housing Vacancy is Chronically Low
Demand for housing has far outpaced supply. Decades of slow housing production has resulted in a vacancy rate of just 1.6% in Massachusetts. A healthy housing vacancy rate is 2.6%.
MassHousing’s Response: MassHousing offers a unique suite of financing and technical assistance programs to help cities and towns across the Commonwealth create and preserve more housing opportunities of all types. Whether it is redeveloping public housing communities, adaptive reuse of former industrial buildings, refinancing of existing affordable or mixed-income developments, or new construction on underutilized land, MassHousing provides high-value financing and expertise to increase the quality and quantity of housing opportunities for Massachusetts residents.
Housing is too Expensive
Since 2000, the median home price in Massachusetts has increased 73%. Meanwhile, between 2010 and 2019, low- and moderate-income homebuyers accounted for less than 25% of home purchases.
MassHousing’s Response: Recognizing that the initial costs of purchasing a home are often the greatest obstacle to homeownership, MassHousing provides down payment assistance of up to $30,000 to eligible homebuyers in every city and town in Massachusetts. Over the past five years, nearly 6,500 people have combined our DPA with an affordable MassHousing Mortgage to buy their first home in the Commonwealth. MassHousing also continues to address the low inventory of homes for sale, particularly homes affordable to low- and moderate-income buyers, through the CommonWealth Builder program and other initiatives to subsidize the construction of new homebuying opportunities.
Our Housing Stock is Old and Inefficient
Massachusetts is home to some of the oldest housing stock in the nation. Roughly two-thirds of residential buildings in the Commonwealth were built before 1980 and have inefficient envelopes and systems, which contribute to high energy costs.
MassHousing’s Response: The majority of the building stock (81%) that will exist in 2050 (when Massachusetts aims to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions) has already been built. Making those buildings, particularly residential ones, as efficient as possible can drive down utility costs, boost home values, and improve comfort and livability while protecting residents from increasingly volatile energy prices. We work with multifamily property owners, municipalities, nonprofits and others to make existing rental housing communities highly energy efficient and sustainable while also extending affordability protections for the long term.
Through the Massachusetts Community Climate Bank’s Energy Saver Home Loan Program, MassHousing provides affordable financing and end-to-end guidance to help homeowners make improvements that cut their energy use by at least 20% and reduce or eliminate their reliance on fossil fuels.
Created in 2023, the Massachusetts Community Climate Bank at MassHousing is the first green bank in the nation to focus on affordable housing. The MCCB works in partnership with state agencies, local officials, utility providers, private banks and philanthropy to help homeowners and affordable housing owners and developers save energy and create more efficient, comfortable and healthy homes for all Massachusetts residents.
Communities Have Unique Housing Needs and Opportunities
Of the roughly 3 million residential structures in Massachusetts, 2.6 million contain 1-4 residential units. Cities and towns need creative solutions to the housing challenges facing their neighborhoods and residents.
MassHousing’s Response: MassHousing helps cities and towns across the Commonwealth implement creative and targeted solutions to address local housing challenges. We provide a variety of grant, technical assistance and other programs to support community efforts to meet local housing goals; finance small- and mid-sized housing developments; and provide technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of communities and local developers. We also help municipalities implement local planning and transform priority development sites into new affordable homes.