BOSTON, July 10, 2009 --- Building on its previous studies of housing, land use and economic growth, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership is announcing a new initiative and commissioning further research to determine how much housing Massachusetts needs to grow its economy and what strategies and policies are needed to achieve more robust housing and economic growth.
The new privately-funded Foundation for Growth initiative has commissioned the University of Massachusetts’ Donahue Institute, Abt Associates and Northeastern University’s Center for Urban and Regional Policy to analyze the state’s housing production needs, what would the costs and benefits be of reaching these levels, and what policies are needed to achieve these benchmarks.
“We’ve done things like measure a student’s performance with MCAS tests but there’s nothing coherent to measure how we’re doing on housing and what we need to do remain competitive with the rest of the U.S.,” said Clark Ziegler, MHP’s executive director. “What we want to do through research and analysis is build a statewide consensus on how much housing we need to grow, set growth benchmarks for communities and then provide the tools to help make it happen.”
Selected in May, each group is studying an aspect of the issue:
- Scope A: The UMass-Donahue Institute is analyzing how much housing production Massachusetts needs in the next 10 years, as a state and by region;
- Scope B: Abt Associates is researching public benefits and costs of achieving these benchmarks;
- Scope C: Northeastern University’s Center for Urban and Regional Policy is researching and developing sustainable housing growth strategy recommendations based on the success of other states.
Foundation for Growth kicked off its effort in January, 2009 when it released a report that found that the three most important factors in determining metro area employment growth are how much housing the region builds, its success in attracting new residents, and the extent to which it is dependent on manufacturing employment.
Entitled Recipe for Growth, economist Edward Moscovitch analyzed job growth in over 200 metropolitan areas from 2000-2006 to determine why greater Boston and Massachusetts lagged behind the rest of the nation in job growth. Moscovitch, a former state budget director, found that Massachusetts could have added thousands of more jobs during the first part of this decade if its restrictive zoning practices had not sharply limited housing construction in the 1990s.
Prior to this report, MHP had commissioned related studies on smarth growth zoning and land use. One study - also done by Moscovitch - analyzed the potential impact that denser smart growth zoning would have on home prices and consumption of open space. A second study by MIT found that many communities in Greater Boston have moved away from denser zoning for housing and that more than half of the region's new homes were built on lots of 0.9 acres or more.
Foundation for Growth is a project of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, a public nonprofit organization. It is not a separate entity or organization. The project is managed and funded by MHP and is supported by a grant to MHP from the State Street Corporation.
For more information about the Foundation for Growth project, contact Rus Lodi at rlodi@mhp.net.