The News First

A new edition of a national state-by-state housing report card is out, and Massachusetts did not just fail—it nearly finished last. The report grades all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., on a 100-point scale split evenly between two things: how affordable homes are for the people who actually live there, and how aggressively each state is building new housing to meet demand.

Massachusetts landed at No. 50 out of 51, with a total score of just 11.2 and a letter grade of F. Only New York scored worse. We share that failing grade with California, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York—and the Northeast as a region scored the worst in the nation.

Maybe the most sobering part: this is not new. Massachusetts held the exact same ranking it had last year. A single year of data didn’t move us, and the report is candid that it won’t—the gap states like ours face will take years of consistent change to close.

Why Massachusetts Failed: The Numbers

The report breaks each state’s score into affordability and homebuilding. Massachusetts stumbles badly on both. Here’s where the Bay State actually lands:

• Median listing price: $763,660 — among the highest in the entire country
• Median household income: $98,170 — high by national standards, but nowhere near enough
• Permit-to-population ratio: 0.41 — among the five lowest-building states in the nation
• New-construction premium: 37.2% — new homes cost well more than existing ones
• REALTORS® Affordability Score: 0.50 — squarely in failing territory

The price tag is the headline here. At over $763,000, the typical Massachusetts listing sits near the top of the national range—and it’s chasing an income that, while strong, can’t keep up. But the deeper problem is supply. A permit-to-population ratio of 0.41 means Massachusetts accounts for less than half the building permits its population share would suggest, ranking it among the five lowest-building states in the country alongside Alaska, Illinois, and Rhode Island.

And notice the income line. At nearly $100,000, Massachusetts has one of the highest median household incomes in the nation. The failing grade isn’t because people here don’t earn well. It’s because prices and underbuilding have outrun even strong paychecks.

Jake’s Take: The Legal Machinery Behind the Grade

Reports like this measure outcomes—prices and permits—but the causes sit largely in law and policy. The report itself names the culprits: restrictive zoning, constrained land, slow permitting, and building costs that outrun middle-income budgets. As an attorney licensed in Massachusetts, a few of these hit close to home:

• Local zoning control. Massachusetts leans heavily on municipal land-use authority. Minimum lot sizes, density caps, and limits on multifamily housing get decided town by town, and they add up to a state that structurally builds less—even with statewide pushes like the MBTA Communities Act trying to nudge the dial.
• Permitting friction. A 0.41 permit ratio doesn’t happen by accident. The approval process—from local boards to appeals—adds time and cost that discourages exactly the entry-level construction this report rewards.
• The new-construction premium. When it costs so much to get anything approved and built, builders rationally chase higher-margin, higher-priced homes. That’s the 37% premium in one sentence.
• Contrast with the leaders. The states topping this list—Indiana, Iowa, the Carolinas, Texas—share lower regulatory barriers and more available land. South Carolina actually builds new homes that cost less than existing ones. That’s the opposite of our situation.

What This Means If You Live Here

For buyers—especially first-time buyers and young families—the grade confirms what you already feel: inventory is tight, prices are among the steepest in the country, and new construction skews expensive. For sellers and longtime owners, that same scarcity is part of why values have climbed. The report’s broader warning is that without policy reform, the gap between Massachusetts and the affordable-housing leaders will only widen.

None of this is a reason for despair. It’s a reason to plan. Whether you’re buying your first home, helping aging parents downsize, or putting your estate in order so the home you own passes cleanly to the next generation, the legal details matter more in a high-cost, low-inventory market than in an easy one.

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