Massachusetts needs 222,000 new housing units over the next decade. New England requires nearly 600,000 units, while millions are needed nationwide near job centers to stabilize the housing market. Achieving this requires embracing diverse housing types beyond single-family homes and large apartments, focusing on affordability, appropriate sizing, and accommodating residents at all life stages. This scale of housing production needed hasn't been seen since in this Country since the post-WWII boom of the 1950s.
The Need To Right Size Our Housing Supply
What do I mean by that? In Massachusetts and much of New England, there has been a trend over the past fifty years of building increasingly larger single-family homes on large plots of land. This has limited our housing supply, driven up home prices, and restricted our ability to provide housing options suitable for people at different life stages. As the average household size has decreased from 3.5 in the 1960s to 2.4 in the 2020s, our stagnant housing inventory coupled with our growing population has become more of a burden to our region rather than an asset as some view it.
We offer few options as people's lives change through divorce, aging, or family formation, hindering the natural movement of our society and tying individuals to homes that may be either too large or too small for their needs. It's essential that we create more options in ALL of our communities. Meet people where they are in life, providing a more balanced supply of housing options at price points that more and more families & individuals can afford.
Most of Massachusetts Is Zoned Exclusively Single-Family Only
The maps above courtesy of the National Zoning Atlas provide a great picture of just how little land area in Eastern Massachusetts allows anything other than single-family zoning. Even the basic triple-decker that helped build up Massachusetts' workforce into an early economic engine of America is prohibited in most places you see them today. These maps are just the tip of the iceberg too as dimensional requirements and parking minimums will largely kill a missing middle project today, even in most of those locations where the unit counts are technically allowed.
Another fun (read nerdy) experiment If you live in a New England City or Town, is to find a small multi-family building in your area and check the underlying zoning. There's a very, very good chance that the building would not be allowed today. In fact, the vast majority of New England's housing stock today is existing non-conforming meaning the underlying zoning would not allow those same buildings to be built today in the exact same location.
The Impacts of By-Right Missing Middle
Our region has a long history of experimenting with missing middle housing. For centuries, Massachusetts has relied on small multi-family housing as a staple of its housing supply, such as the triple deckers constructed to accommodate the increasing number of workers in cities like Boston, Salem, New Bedford, Newburyport, and Marblehead.
In Portland, Oregon, 2021 Residential Infill Project (RIP) reforms allowed missing middle housing in traditionally single family only neighborhoods across the City. Since those reforms were enacted the City has seen 1,400 new units of housing take advantage of the new regulations. These regulations have allowed small developers to build housing options in areas typically zoned exclusively for larger single family. In 2023-2024, The City noted that missing middle housing types were selling for $200,000 - $250,000 less than single family homes in similar neighborhoods.
What Can We Do?
Zoning Reform
With small multi-family units mostly banned in much of New England, it's crucial to start reforming local zoning to permit this type of housing once more. In 2023, Vermont Governor Scott (R) enacted a bill permitting up to quadplexes by right on most lots with water and sewer access throughout the state, overriding local zoning regulations. Similar efforts should be implemented across the region in designated community growth areas. Additionally, we should consider broader state-level reforms, such as removing minimum parking requirements and reducing minimum lot sizes, both of which can significantly hinder infill development.
Permitting Reform
Missing middle development requires more predictability. By identifying specific growth areas and the types of development allowed in those neighborhoods, communities can establish "pre-approved plans," offering smaller developers and builders greater certainty to begin investing in planning development on their sites. Kelowna, British Columbia recently launched a pre-approved plan program that ensures permits within 10 days for developments selected from a variety of designs on lots of a certain size.
Condo Liability Reform
Condo defect liability reform serves as an impedement to the production of smaller home ownership opportunities in many states. As summarized in this Up For Growth article, CDL, while intended to protect home owners, has swung the pendulum too far and has created an environment where smaller developers, and their sub-contractors, find the costs of insuring small home ownership developments to be prohibitively expensive. This is an issue receiving greater attention recently, with the Governor of Colorado, Jared Pollis, directly addressing CDL in his recent State of the State speech in January;
In the past, this conversation about meaningful condo liability reforms that balance homeowner protections, de-risk the market, and allow for more condos to be built and sold has been stifled on both sides. Let’s turn the page and have a real dialogue about what is preventing condos from being built, and solve for it. I know we can get this done in a way that protects homeowners' rights when there is a defect, but makes it less expensive and cumbersome for builders of all kinds to start projects and deliver housing.
Alternative Financing
Small developers, particularly those without extensive experience or without a close network of wealth friends and family, can have a very difficult time tapping into a private market that is incentivized towards large scale development. In his piece from 2023, Coby Lefkowitz, small developer and author, listed a few of his recommendations to help small developers access more flexible sources of capital for missing middle projects. It's a great read in it's entirety and would recommend it for anyone looking for a deeper dive into the topic.
Jonathan Berk is an urbanist, placemaker, housing advocate, and the founder of reMAIN, a platform dedicated to advancing the development of missing middle housing in pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. This platform supports the creation of infill housing by collaborating directly with municipalities, connecting strategic development sites with local developers and new funding sources, and helping communities achieve their stated housing objectives.
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