By Mike Ross
Will recent efforts by state and local governments meaningfully stimulate the housing market? What more needs to be done?
The last eighteen months in Greater Boston have been an uphill battle for housing generation. Realtor.com recently ranked Massachusetts among the worst states for homebuilding and affordability due to the lack of new construction and the minimal efforts by state and local governments to develop affordable housing.[1] One of the most significant factors that has led to the housing crisis is the infamous rigidity of Massachusetts zoning laws. Despite this backdrop, in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and elsewhere, some liberalizations of these laws have begun.
On August 6, 2024, the Affordable Homes Act was signed into law by Governor Maura Healey.[2] The Affordable Homes Act introduced many policy changes to increase housing production and affordability in the Commonwealth. For example, accessory dwelling units – small residential units (typically of less than 900 square feet) that are located on the same lot as another home – are now allowed to be built “as of right,” meaning without zoning relief. What was once a basement or attic can now become an additional housing unit.[3] ADU’s can also consist of new construction attached to the preexisting residence, or they can be detached from the primary residence.[4]
In Boston, the Squares + Streets zoning regime has led to a burst of new housing approvals, and Prince Lobel is excited to be working on numerous projects within this regime. For the first time, large, mixed-use and multi-family commercial housing developments, such as this project on Morton Street in Boston, can be permitted as of right.
Also in Boston, the city launched an office to residential conversion plan with the goal of incentivizing the conversion of increasingly vacant office spaces into residential ones in the wake of the post-pandemic shift to working from home.[5] By increasing the number of people living downtown, the City’s program is designed to help increase economic activity in the heart of the city while simultaneously finding a practical use for the unused office spaces. The Healey administration has made such conversions a priority, recently awarding $7.4 million in support of two office-to-housing projects that will create nearly 200 new units in downtown Boston.[6]
In February 2025, Cambridge made significant changes to its zoning laws by eliminating all single-family zoning rules.[7] This change allows for multi-family homes to be built in all residential neighborhoods, allowing developers to immediately begin building four-story buildings in those neighborhoods.[8] In addition, properties that are larger than 5,000 square feet can now be built up to six stories if they make at least 20% of the units affordable.[9] Cambridge has been dealing with a significant housing shortage due to increases in cost of construction and high interest rates, among other factors. Half of the population in Cambridge cannot afford the high real estate prices. In early 2023, developers had constructed only five additional places to live in this city of 50,000 homes.[10]
In neighboring Somerville, the average home value has risen nearly 40% since 2016.[11] The housing prices in the Greater Boston area are continuing to rise faster than incomes, which severely limits the number of potential homebuyers. One of the major reasons housing prices in the Greater Boston area continue to increase is because of the pace of demand to live here, against the dearth of new housing starts. Unless housing production matches demand, this will not change. The Commonwealth and its cities and towns need to find additional solutions to increase housing for their residents.
In 2021, the legislature passed the MBTA Communities Act, aimed at all cities and towns that either have or are adjacent to communities that have MBTA transit stops.[12] The act created an affirmative duty for each such MBTA community to have a zoning bylaw that allows for at least one district of reasonable size in which multifamily housing is permitted as of right. In 2024, the Attorney General brought a suit against the town of Milton for voting down a proposed zoning scheme whose contents would have satisfied this requirement. Subsequently, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the law and held that the Attorney General has broad authority to enforce it.[13]
These steps are a good starting point for Massachusetts cities and towns, but more is needed. It would be beneficial to consider more avenues to stimulate the housing market, such as the following.
- Boston needs to eliminate its existing one-family and two-family subdistricts. No city in the United States should be zoned exclusively for single family properties – it’s the antithesis of what a city is and should be.
- Expanding Multifamily Housing operations: Governor Healey has discussed introducing legislation intended to allow up to four units on all residential lots with existing water and sewer infrastructure.[14]
- Eliminating Parking Minimums: Mandatory surface and structured parking has had significant effects on housing costs, as well costing vital land that could be utilized for other purposes. A solution here would be eliminating parking minimums statewide for residential uses and creating transportation demand management requirements as the prerequisite for allowing off-street parking for new housing.[15] Several of the new zoning initiatives for Boston,[16] Cambridge and Somerville all have no requirements for off-street parking.[17]
- Minimum Lot Size Reform: Just as with parking spaces, residential lots take up space that could be used for housing and consequently contribute to its costs. Eliminating residential minimum lot sizes statewide and allowing residential lot mergers, splits, and the widespread use of substandard lots statewide could create space to build new multifamily housing.[18] It is preposterous to think that an entire neighborhood filled with undersized lots, like many of the lots in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville, are off limits for the very kind of new housing that can be built on similarly sized vacant lots.
Over the last fifteen years or so, I have helped permit thousands of units of housing throughout Greater Boston. The proposals above do not necessarily enrich land-use attorneys, but they will spark additional development that is vital to our region.
If you have any questions about commercial development in and around Greater Boston, please reach out to Mike Ross, or any other member of Prince Lobel’s Real Estate Practice Group.
This article was written by Mike Ross with assistance from Summer Law Clerk David Cooper and Legal Intern Samuel London.
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[1] Beth Treffeisen, Massachusetts earns an F on new homebuilding and affordability, Boston.com, (April 30, 2025), https://www.boston.com/real-estate/real-estate-news/2025/04/30/massachusetts-earns-an-f-on-new-homebuilding-and-affordability/.
[2] Affordable Homes Act, ch. 150, 2024 Mass. Acts (enacted as H.4977).
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Office to residential conversion program. City of Boston Planning Department. (2025). https://www.bostonplans.org/projects/office-to-residential-conversion-program
[6] Healey-Driscoll Administration awards $7.4 million to convert downtown Boston offices into new housing. Mass.gov. (2025, June 4). https://www.mass.gov/news/healey-driscoll-administration-awards-74-million-to-convert-downtown-boston-offices-into-new-housing
[7] Tim Staskiewicz, Cambridge Scraps Single-Family Zoning, Allows Six Story Buildings Across City, WROR, (Feb. 12, 2025, 9:57AM), https://wror.com/2025/02/12/cambridge-scraps-single-family-zoning-allows-six-story-buildings-across-city/.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] Amanda Blanco & Jay Lindsay, Nowhere to hide: Housing costs keep climbing in all corners of New England, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, (Dec. 12, 2024), https://www.bostonfed.org/news-and-events/news/2024/12/nowhere-to-hide-housing-costs-keep-climbing-in-all-corners-of-new-england-boston-fed-housing-crisis.aspx.
[12] See Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 40A, § 3A (2025) (providing that one of the goals of the MBTA Communities Law was to increase the number of multi-family homes near transit stations in cities and towns such as Newton and Brookline).
[13] Attorney General v. Town of Milton, 495 Mass. 183, 196 (2025).
[14] Augustus, E., et al. (2025, February). Building for Tomorrow. Mass.gov. https://www.mass.gov/doc/building-for-tomorrow-a-report-from-the-unlocking-housing-production-commission
[15] Pinto, D. R. (2025, February 26). Mass. “unlocking housing production commission” recommends land use and zoning reforms. Massachusetts Dirt and Development Law. https://www.massdirtlaw.com/2025/02/26/mass-unlocking-housing-production-commission-recommends-land-use-and-zoning-reforms/.
[16] Hughes, Liz. “Zoning Amendment to Limit Off-Street Parking Requirements for Affordable Housing Developments.” Boston Agent Magazine, 18 Jan. 2022, bostonagentmagazine.com/2022/01/18/zoning-amendment-to-limit-off-street-parking-requirements-for-affordable-housing-developments/.
[17] MilNeil, Christian. “Cambridge Repeals All Minimum Car Parking Requirements for New Buildings.” Streetsblog Massachusetts, 25 Oct. 2022, mass.streetsblog.org/2022/10/25/cambridge-repeals-all-minimum-car-parking-requirements-for-new-buildings.
[18] Id.