AMHERST — The state is lagging significantly behind national housing production trends, with western Massachusetts needing an estimated 23,000 new units to meet current demand.
“Massachusetts is at less than half of the national average,” Kerry Spitzer said about housing production at a housing forum held Wednesday night. “And then we’ve got western Massachusetts. We’re actually half of that average.”
Spitzer, the senior research manager at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Donahue Institute, was citing building permit data from 2023. She was among the researchers, local officials and developers who gathered at UMass for the Hampshire County Housing Conversation to share ideas on meeting a housing demand that current production cannot match.
For western Massachusetts, participants noted that there are several barriers including older current housing units, limited space and limited resources. The speakers, however, remained optimistic that getting closer to the demand is achievable.
“We’ve put a lot of effort into developing affordable housing,” said Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman. “But this has changed to start thinking we just need more housing, period, at all levels.”
Along with the Donahue Institute, the event was hosted by two other prominent regional housing agencies — the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and Springfield nonprofit Way Finders.
Opening the event, Spitzer shared information from Way Finders and the Donahue Institute’s “Building Homes, Building Futures” report. Released late last year, it is the first-ever housing report covering the four counties in western Massachusetts.
“Demand for housing is exceeding supply and we’re seeing this in the vacancy rates, which are low and below what we would consider healthy levels,” said Spitzer. “Asking rents and home prices have risen across all the communities in western Massachusetts and Hampshire County is at the high end of that spectrum.”
Gov. Maura Healey released the first Statewide Housing Plan in the winter of 2025, setting a goal of creating 222,000 housing units by 2035.
Spitzer said all types of housing are necessary: market-rate and affordable units, building rehabilitations and new construction. She noted a particular need for smaller, more accessible units.
“Housing markets are similar for markets for all types of goods. When supply is low and demand is high, you see rising prices. One of the indicators of low supply are [low] vacancy rates,” Spitzer said, adding that Hampshire County’s vacancy rate has dropped in half in the last five years.
One landlord in the audience asked how affordable housing developers are keeping up with the costs of construction when their tenants pay lower rents.
“As an affordable developer, we can access a lot of funds through the state that subsidize the cost of development,” said Executive Director of Valley Community Development Alexis Breiteneicher. “That is the only way any of these pencil out.”
While the Northampton-based nonprofit Valley Community Development focuses on affordable housing, Breiteneicher noted that market-rate developers face even greater challenges because they do not receive those subsidies, leaving no guarantee that rents will cover construction costs.
Northampton Planning & Sustainability Director Carolyn Misch shared similar statements.
“We have a backlog of a number of units that have been approved that are market rate, but until there’s this change … those units aren’t going to be able to come online,” she said
Jeff Bagg, Amherst’s planning & economic development director, said the town has successfully brought affordable housing to fruition through its “pipeline” — a plan that establishes a clear timeline for each project to guide it toward completion.
“The pipeline is something that makes me optimistic,” Bagg said. “In Amherst we have … this pipeline of projects and we have great partners in that.”
One barrier to construction Bagg has observed is the cost of energy code requirements and environmental standards. While important, he noted they inevitably drive up expenses.
“If you think about energy code requirements in particular as one example, as communities adopt those, it feels good and it feels right to do it but on the flip side, it’s making the actual construction costs continue to go up,” he said.
“The required all-electrification also adds cost on continued operation because electricity is wildly more expensive than other fossil based sources of energy,” Breiteneicher added about electrification systems. “They’re also much more complex and in western Mass. in particular, we don’t have a lot of folks that can service those systems.”
An attendee asked, while construction costs and certain codes are out of a municipality’s control, what can municipalities do to help create more housing?
“As a developer, we really appreciate municipalities that have zoning that works in our favor,” Breiteneicher said, adding that “time is money,” and stricter permitting processes only add to the clock.
Both Bagg and Misch said their respective communities are working on ways to reduce the hurdles of development, though it requires active community engagement.
“There are efforts underway to help eliminate some of the barriers, reduce some of the barriers, but I think it’s sensitive,” Bagg said. “You have people who live in town and they have a stake in what’s happening. So trying to get clarity and predictability is something that we’re working on.”
In Northampton, Misch said the city has been successful at streamlining the process. “One of the things we try to do in Northampton is eliminate those permitting barriers. Again, permitting is time, and time is money.”
“As much as I like Amherst,” Breiteneicher said, “I will say that Northampton is a much, for us as a developer, is a lot easier a municipality to work in.”
In older, denser cities like Northampton, Misch said there is less space for large-scale developments compared to other states. However, pockets exist, such as the property at 33 King St., the former Registry of Deeds building.
Misch hopes that there can be more continuous conversations about what it means to provide housing for all community members.
“I think a big need for all of our communities is to have more public support for housing,” Misch said. “Housing is change and it creates fear with the immediate surrounding neighbors, residents, not understanding what it might look like at the end of the day.”