The housing crisis persists into 2025, but many in the industry are hoping to start pressing on the brakes and seeing significant change in the near future.
This is something a panel of experts reflected on recently at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies’ (JCHS) 2025 State of the Nation’s Housing event.
Moderated by The Boston Globe Housing Reporter Andrew Brinker, the panel featured several expert voices, including: John Barros, managing principal of Civitas Builders; Lydia Edwards, Massachusetts state senator; Chris Herbert, managing director of JCHS; and Clark Ziegler, executive director of Massachusetts Housing Partnership.
The panel was brought together to reflect on the substantial data from JCHS’ recently released 2025 State of the Nation’s Housing report, and ruminate over the paths to solutions the industry could pursue.
The affordability problem
First discussing the rental side of the market, Brinker turned to Herbert to hear his thoughts on the “degradation of affordability.”
Herbert brought up several stats from JCHS’ report, namely that the amount of affordable units for renters continues to fall.
“What’s happening in the market is that it’s becoming increasingly hard to find apartments that rent for modest amounts,” he said. “If you look at units between $600 and $1,000 a month, there’s five million fewer of those since 2013. So 7.5 million fewer rental units for less than $1,000.”
Herbert continued by saying that the hope for improvement comes in building more affordable units. He noted that there was definite growth seen in multifamily construction in JCHS’ report, which helped to slow the rent price growth by 1%.
Edwards agreed with Herbert’s sentiment, adding that in Boston, many of the more affordable rental units are being occupied by students of the several colleges and universities in the area, something that is true for many college areas.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean homeownership is the cheaper option. Transitioning to the for-sale housing market, Brinker pointed out to panelists the JCHS finding that the homeownership rate had dropped for the first time in eight years, and that homeowner household growth halved in 2024.
Herbert responded to this, noting that more and more people are renting because they do not have the income required to afford a home.
“It takes $126,000 in income to be able to afford a median-priced house, and only 15% of renters have that much income, let alone the cash you need for down payment,” he said. “People can’t get into homeownership.”
Barros noted that many affordability issues can be attributed to the “cost of land, cost of construction, cost of money,” and that “incomes are sort of stagnant.”
The paths to solutions
While a lot of JCHS’ State of Housing report is focused on the data around the issues the industry faces, it also focuses on the paths to solutions that can be found. Brinker transitioned the panelists’ conversation toward solutions, first leaning toward the construction side of the market.
Construction is the fuel behind the fire of the housing market, and as previously discussed, issues in construction have led to barriers in affordability. Ziegler noted that “so many of the factors that control what can get built at what cost are state and local.”
“We have to be deadly serious about creating different options, disrupting this industry that honestly has been doing things the same way for decades, if not half a century or longer,” he continued. “We need our hair on fire around housing costs. We have to find ways to meet people where they are, produce products they can afford and shake up this system.”
Housing assistance was also a big focus in the JCHS report, as Brinker noted, specifically the increased need for programs, and how it’s not always being met.
This is something Edwards said has been a challenge for lawmakers like herself as of late. She explained that what local and state lawmakers can do is a lot of the time limited to what federal support they have, which has been a bit vague as of late.
“It requires us to think more creatively, not just because we need more money. We need to also think of barriers that our laws allow that make it more expensive for people,” she said. “These are barriers that aren’t dealing with the lack of federal funding, but they are loosening the grip and also forcing us to look at a mirror at what we have done to maintain the system, or if not expand this ridiculous system that’s become so expensive.”
She said some solutions being pursued in Boston and many other areas are zoning laws around accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and eliminating broker fees for renters.
Speaking on lawmaking, Barros said that this is a “greater cross collaboration across sectors,” in order for the government to build a greater understanding of new policy and then codify it into law.
Fair housing is another barrier to homeownership that has been a longstanding issue. Edwards said that there is a path in lawmaking that will help to breed solutions.
Something she helped do in her time as a city councilor in Boston was work to pass “the nation’s first affirmatively furthering fair housing law through zoning so that you have to consider race consciousness, the desegregation, the classism, all of those different things.” This is a solution path she said can be pursued in so many communities nationwide.
Another issue is the conversation around housing and changing people’s views. Barros said that “part of that is making sure that we’re singing the praises of an industry.”
“Hopefully as we make the industry that is seen as doing the right thing and not gouging people and not trying to make money at the cost of communities or other people,” he continued. “I think it’s a really important thing for production that we continue to not be on the front page for doing the wrong thing.”
The future
Brinker closed the conversation by asking panelists, amidst all the challenges, what is something we can be optimistic about?
Herbert answered that “what we can be optimistic about is reflected (in) the conversation we just had.”
“I think there is a lot of innovation happening…(t)his crisis is the mother of invention,” he continued. “Even though it’s kind of a dark time, it’s a time when there’s a lot of creativity flourishing, and I’m hopeful that good ideas will come out of that.”
