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 national averages. Since then, our housing costs rose to the highest in the U.S. and our per capita housing production dropped to 47th lowest of the 50 states. In defiance of the smart growth movement we now build more new housing on large lots in Massachusetts than almost anywhere else. It is more than a coincidence that job growth has declined as barriers to new housing have increased.

What’s the problem in a nutshell? We have 351 cities and towns, each with their own zoning codes and land use regulations, that make decisions based on their own perceived interests. That is not how it works in most other states, where land use decisions are made at the regional level or where local decisions must be consistent with regional or state plans. It is widely accepted that Massachusetts needs to be an attractive place for families to live and for employers to expand and create new jobs. Yet in our own individual cities and towns we typically make decisions that achieve just the opposite. We require mammoth building lots to limit the amount of housing that can be built, try to minimize the number of kids in our schools, and usually make it clear that we want new development to happen “somewhere else”.

Public debate needed

MHP is creating this forum for public debate because we believe that the status quo does not serve anyone’s interests. Our premise is that the needs for increased housing production and stronger economic growth in Massachusetts can be reconciled with our desire for a high quality of life, preservation of open space, protection of the environment, and respect for local governance. It will take strong civic leadership --- at the same scale we’ve seen on issues like education and health care reform --- to turn the tide and achieve meaningful changes in state growth policy. That leadership can only be successful if it’s built on a foundation of solid analysis, a willingness to reconcile competing points of view,  and a commitment to make smart policy choices from among multiple options.  The Land Use Partnership Act now under consideration by the Legislature, which was crafted through a partnership between the Patrick Administration, legislative leaders, and a statewide task force,  is a major step in that direction.

MHP is also putting its money where its mouth is. We have initiated a multi-year research and policy analysis project -- called Foundation for Growth -- to better under the connection between housing and the state’s economy. The first work product, a report entitled Recipe for Growth by economist Ed Moscovitch, analyzed data from 242 metropolitan areas across the U.S. to determine what factors contributed most significantly to regional job growth. He found strong statistical evidence that production of new housing is a prerequisite for future job growth. When all other factors are taken into account, regions that fail to produce new housing consistently lose jobs to other regions. Further work is now quantifying the relationship between housing and economic growth in the Commonwealth, developing regional benchmarks for housing production needed to achieve various levels of economic growth, measuring the costs and public benefits of meeting the benchmarks, and identifying successful housing strategies in other states that could be applied in Massachusetts to help achieve the benchmarks and make planning and land use decisions more responsive to our economic needs. This work is being done by teams from the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Abt Associates, and the Dukakis Center for Urban & Regional Policy at Northeastern University.

In the meantime, we will be using this space to share contributions from authors with a range of views about growth, zoning and housing and will post comments on those submissions. If you have questions about the opinions expressed on this site, please ask them. If you disagree with analysis that gets presented here, please explain why or point us to analysis that reaches different conclusions. All we ask is that opinions are expressed respectfully, in your own name, and that arguments are factually based to the greatest extent possible.

We are excited about engaging in this debate and even more excited about the prospect of working to develop new state growth policies that help expand our economy while improving our quality of life.