The purpose of the Foundation for Growth project is to:
- Analyze the relationship between housing and economic growth in Massachusetts;
- Propose housing production benchmarks to sustain a healthy economy;
- Recommend policy solutions to achieve these housing benchmarks.
Growing debate blog -
Reinventing the waterfront, Part 2
-July 28, 2010 Interesting to see that Archon/Goldman Properties’ new Fort Point Channel plans reflect Mayor Menino’s wish to turn the South Boston waterfront into a research incubator with housing for young professionals. The Boston Business Journal’s Craig Douglas reports the new proposal calls for a…
Why we're here: To find a housing strategy that helps unleash our economic potential
-June 18, 2009 A robust public debate about housing and economic growth in Massachusetts is long overdue. Ever since the boom and bust of the late 1980s the state’s job growth has lagged behind the nation as a whole. Prior to the 1980s, housing costs and annual housing production in Massachusetts were right in line with…
1 CommentOpinion: Glaeser outlines stakes in Boston-Atlanta competition
June 3, 2010
BOSTON --- Writing for the Boston Globe editorial page, Harvard University‘s Edward Glaeser outlines the similarities between Atlanta and Boston and says that the two cities are in competition for young workers in popular growth industries like life sciences.
Event: Wrestling with Growth in Acton
February 9, 2010
CAMBRIDGE --- On Thursday February 11, 2010 at 1 p.m. Alexander von Hoffman, a Senior Fellow from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, will present a paper titled "Wrestling with Growth in Acton, Massachusetts: The Possibilities and Limits of Progressive Planning."
State: Job growth faster, more dramatic, than originally predicted
June 7, 2010
STATE --- In an article in this week’s Boston Business Journal, the paper reports that the state has seen a faster rate of job growth in recent months than originally predicted by economists.
California: Court rules that suburb must loosen development rules
March 18, 2010
CALIFORNIA --- The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a Superior Court ruling on the need to loosen development rules will send a message to other California suburbs and small cities about sharing the load of regional housing needs.
Research
The Foundation for Growth project includes major research and analysis that is currently involved in:
Benchmarking private housing production needs in Massachusetts over the next 10 years;
Quantifying the public benefits and costs of achieving these benchmarks;
Developing a sustainable housing growth strategy informed by the successes of other states, and building the consensus to make the necessary policy and legislative change.
Report: Metro Monitor -- June 2010
July 6, 2010
WASHINGTON D.C., July 6, 2010 --- Published quarterly by the Brooking Insitution, the MetroMonitor is an interactive barometer of the health of America’s 100 largest metropolitan economies. It examines trends in metropolitan-level employment, output, and housing conditions to look “beneath the hood” of national economic statistics to portray the diverse metropolitan trajectories of recession and recovery across the country. This edition of the Monitor examines indicators through the first quarter of 2010 (ending in March) in the areas of employment, unemployment, output, home prices, and foreclosure rates for the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas.
Study: The Economic Benefits of Home Building in Massachusetts
June 18, 2010
STATE, June 18, 2010 --- Elliot Eisenberg, PhD., senior economist of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), recently prepared a report looking at both single-family and condominium new homeownership, and the ways the creation of housing impacts local economies, as well as the state’s economy.
Discussion Paper: The Housing Bust and Housing Affordability in New England -- An Update of Housing Affordability Measures
June 16, 2010
BOSTON, June 16, 2010 --- Written by Robert Clifford, a research associate at the New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, this discussion paper updates the Center's 2006 housing affordability working paper, drawing on housing market data through 2008 to provide an in-depth analysis of housing affordability after the recent housing market bust.
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- Massachusetts has the 4th lowest rate of housing production in the U.S.
- Housing production in Massachusetts hasn't kept up with demand since the 1980s.
- Housing prices are among the highest in the U.S. and have increased more than any other state.
- Zoning and land use restrictions are one of the principle reasons for high housing costs.
- On average, each new home requires more than an acre of land - the size of a football field.
Massachusetts Housing Partnership
Phone: (617) 330-9955
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