Press Release: 10/22/2025
New data suggest Massachusetts making progress on housing construction, but permit data provides warning
In preview of Greater Boston Housing Report Card, Boston Indicators highlights new dataset counting new units built in region
October 21, 2025
Boston—In a special pre-release from the upcoming 2025 Greater Boston Housing Report Card, researchers from Boston Indicators, the research center of the Boston Foundation, finds that Massachusetts has accelerated its housing construction over the past few years, but a slowdown in new housing permits suggests a slowdown ahead.
The new supply data is one section of the upcoming report card, which will be released on November 12 at the Boston Foundation. The section tracks recent trends in building permits alongside a newly-available dataset that counts total housing units, the Census Address Count. The permit and address data complement each other: the permit data is a leading indicator of construction, while the address count measures completed units and takes into account units demolished to build new housing.
“The Census Address Count gives us a more complete picture of the housing stock as it actually exists, while the permits data provides a look ahead to understand the future of our new housing market, which is especially important considering how long it can take large projects to move from permitting to completion,” said Luc Schuster, Executive Director of Boston Indicators.
The data analysis from Boston Indicators research fellow Aja Kennedy shows that statewide, the housing stock increased by 97,656 units between April 2020 and July 2025, with nearly three-fourths of the increase coming in the five counties of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The increase was especially notable in the last 12 months of the count, with more than 40,000 units coming online statewide.
The permits data, however, offers caution that the uptick may not continue. Permits data show that while the number of permits rebounded from its historically low levels from 2008-2012 to peak in 2021, the number of units permitted has fallen sharply since then, likely due in part to higher interest rates and construction costs.
“While the new Census Address Count data suggest that Massachusetts is in a strong position to meet the statewide housing goal of 220,000 new units between 2025 and 2035, the recent spike in completions reflects permits granted before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and before financing conditions tightened,” said Schuster. “The recent drop in permits is almost certain to be followed by a drop in unit completions, and unless permits rebound, the 220,000-unit goal will become much more difficult to reach.”
The data also allow for a community-by-community understanding of where new units are being built. (An interactive table is available on BostonIndicators.org.) Data show that not surprisingly, Boston had the most new units built in the 2020-2025 time frame, adding more than 17,000 new units over five years, more than the rest of the top 10 communities in net new units in Greater Boston combined.
But several smaller communities, including Revere, Plymouth, Weymouth, Woburn, Saugus and others, had higher increases than Boston’s 5.7% as measured by their total increase as a percentage of 2020 housing units over the five-year period. The town of Millis led the pack, adding nearly 14 percent to its housing stock from 2020-2025.
The full 2025 Greater Boston Housing Report, including this data as well as new analysis of housing affordability, rental availability and housing instability, along with a special topic exploration of implementation of the MBTA Communities Act, will be released on November 12 with an event at the Boston Foundation. We will announce details of the event, speaking program and panel discussion later in October.