Massachusetts Offered a Solution to Housing Shortages. Is It Working?
The Affordable Housing Act designated Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, the Berkshires and other resort towns as “seasonal communities,” making it easier to build homes there for workers.
From the article:
The apartment vacancy rate in (Berkshire) county is 3.7 percent, down from 6.2 in 2018, and evictions have nearly doubled, according to the UMass Donahue Institute, which studies housing.
Growth in population leveled off by 2023, but the market remains tight. The number of new building permits issued in Massachusetts has “increasingly lagged the national average” since the Great Recession that started in 2007, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The UMass Donahue Institute estimates that the state will face a shortfall of 222,000 homes by 2036.
Read article: Massachusetts Offered a Solution to Housing Shortages. Is It Working?
November 13, 2025
