A new report from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce finds that Massachusetts has higher housing costs than all of the most common states where residents are moving, and that we’re building new housing at a much slower rate than those states.
The report, called “Supercharging Housing Production,” also says that high median rent, low rental vacancy and a low number of permits issued for new housing are some of the main contributors to the state’s housing affordability crisis.
“We hear every day from the commonwealth’s employers from all industries that high housing costs are negatively impacting our ability to attract and retain the talent that they need to compete in the 21st century global economy,” said Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce James Rooney. “When access to talent — one of the biggest competitive strengths of Massachusetts — becomes more difficult, it affects business decisions about where to invest, grow jobs and deploy capital.”
Emily Baer, director of research and policy at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, said that over the past five years, Massachusetts has lost thousands of residents to its economic competitors: Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Florida, California and New York. Those states represent the top seven destination states for residents who leave the state, “as well as job losses from employers and businesses,” the report says.
“The biggest losses were to the states of Florida and New Hampshire, where on average we lose about 20,000 residents per year,” said Baer. “Just to put this number into perspective, in 2024, which is the most recent year that we have comprehensive state-to-state migration data for, we lost just over 30,000 residents total to other states.”
Among other findings in the report is that Massachusetts’ median home list price is $799,450, which is “nearly double prices in Texas and significantly higher than Florida and North Carolina.”
Baer said that “our housing supply needs to not only expand to meet the deficit that our current residents face right now, but it also needs to grow to meet the needs of new residents.” Baer said the shortage is estimated to be about 222,000 housing units by 2035.
The report says Massachusetts has the lowest housing production per capita, with 170 new housing units permitted per 100,000 residents. The report says that’s “less than half the rate of all competitor states.”
Boston has also had a consistently lower vacancy rate compared to other states. In 2025, the average rental vacancy rate was 3.35%, according to the report. Meanwhile, Florida and Texas, two of the state’s economic competitors, both have a vacancy rate that’s about three times higher.
Jenny Schuetz, vice president of infrastructure and housing at Arnold Ventures, said overly restrictive regulations at the local level make it hard to build housing and especially hard to build in places that have great job markets, public schools and high amenities.”
“There isn’t nearly enough rental housing in these high-opportunity communities, so people can’t even afford to get their foot in the door if the price of entry is buying a home in many of these places,” she said.
Schuetz said this “winds up being a penalty” for early career workers and households, ultimately causing them to leave the state.
Schuetz said legalizing homes of all shapes and sizes is one of three broad reforms that can increase the state’s housing supply.
“Making it easier to build homes that are not just single-family detached houses and big apartment buildings, but everything in between, allows people more choice and to find a house that fits them at their life stage and their budget,” she said.
She adds that making the development process simpler, shorter and more transparent would decrease the hard costs of construction and result in more homes.
“Places like Greater Boston suburbs tend to have very complicated and long processes that make it expensive to add housing, and especially in time periods like now, when interest rates are high and developers have to carry those costs for a long time,” Schuetz said.
The report recommends that to encourage more housing production, the state should cap the percentage of affordable housing mandated for new projects to 10% for the next 10 years; allow multi-family construction by right; and exempt housing construction materials for multi-family construction from sales taxes for 10 years, among other measures.
Schuetz said the best solutions will vary between different communities to unlock the most supply and add the most housing.
“I think it’s important to move beyond just an idea that this is an urban core, very expensive market kind of problem,” she said. “We need to think about the policy solutions that can work in our urban core, in our suburban communities, and even in small towns and rural areas, which increasingly are facing upwards pressure on housing supply and housing prices.”
