""By requiring zoning changes but not the creation of new housing, the state both respected local control over housing policy and provided loopholes," said Katherine Levine Einstein, associate professor and co-director of the Boston University Initiative on Cities, in a statement. She continued, "Some communities have seized on [the loopholes] to meet the letter of the law but not its intent, which was to create thousands of new homes for Massachusetts families.""
"Boston Indicators researchers found good news in a dataset from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Address Count data, which tallies new postal addresses as a proxy for housing units. The data showed that Massachusetts created 97,656 new units between April 2020 and July 2025, with over 71,000 of them in Greater Boston. However, the latest permit numbers are tempering the growth in new housing, signaling a slowdown in construction."
Greater Boston added over 71,000 housing units between April 2020 and July 2025 as part of 97,656 statewide additions. Building permit issuance declined from nearly 20,000 in 2021 to just over 14,000 in 2024 statewide, and from 15,019 permits in Greater Boston in 2021 to just under 9,000 in 2024, with 2025 numbers lower to date. Many municipalities changed zoning to comply with the MBTA Communities Act, but few converted zoning changes into new housing construction. Permit slowdowns and zoning loopholes have contributed to worsening housing affordability.
Read at Boston.com
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