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It’s a recurring, discouraging statistic that no aspiring first-time homebuyer wants to hear.
Despite enduring some of the highest monthly expenses nationwide, only one in seven renter households in Greater Boston can afford an “entry level” home, according to the 2025 Greater Boston Housing Report Card released Wednesday.
The share of renter households with the means to buy a starter home fell from 30% in 2021 to 15% in 2025, the report shows.
That’s despite a period of increased housing construction activity.
“While new data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows a significant uptick in new home completions in recent years, the increase has not significantly helped home affordability, and a decline in the number of new housing permits statewide suggests any construction uptick could be short-lived,” said Luc Schuster, executive director of the research arm of the Boston Foundation.
The annual housing report found that Massachusetts created just under 98,000 housing units from April 2020 to July 2025, with about 71,000 in Greater Boston.
The pace marks a “meaningful increase” and “would put Massachusetts within striking distance” of meeting the state’s goal of building 222,000 new units by 2035, the report stated.
“But permits, which signal future housing construction, are way down,” the report states. “New permits as of July 2025 are running 44% below levels for the same period in 2021.”
Despite the modest increase in housing construction, “Greater Boston’s housing affordability crisis has only worsened since the pandemic,” the report shows.
In 2025, home prices and rents have broadly leveled off but remain at unaffordable levels, the data shows.
Whereas in 2021, a household earning about $98,000 could buy a home at the low end of the market with a $2,520 monthly payment, a household this year would need to earn over $162,000 to afford the $4,200 monthly payment on the starter homes.
While Greater Boston encompasses communities with the state’s highest housing costs, it’s not an insignificant sample.
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council defines Greater Boston as an area made up of 101 communities — 22 cities and 79 towns — that includes a mix of coastal communities, older industrial centers, rural towns, and urban neighborhoods.
And while housing costs do moderate somewhat beyond that region, so do the incomes of those who live there.
And in many cases, incomes haven’t kept pace with housing prices, even in Gateway Cities.
For example, since 2021, housing prices in Lawrence have climbed nearly 70% to a median of $500,000.
Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll spoke on the report’s finding Wednesday, citing the administration’s work in passing the $5.2 billion Affordable Homes Act in 2024, and the MBTA Communities Law requiring zoning for multifamily housing in the 177 communities served by that transportation system.
Despite the government’s efforts to spur housing construction, market forces — primarily the high cost of land and building materials — have conspired against it.
As the lieutenant governor stated, building sufficient housing shouldn’t be this hard.
But in Massachusetts, that’s the inescapable norm.
DPU continues exemplary pipeline safety performance
Building on the protocols incorporated in the wake of the catastrophic 2018 pipeline explosions in three Merrimack Valley communities, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has received another perfect score from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for its oversight safety program in 2024.
On Sept. 13, 2018, a series of natural gas pipeline explosions in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover killed one man and injured dozens more.
The explosions and fires occurred after high-pressure natural gas was released into a low-pressure gas distribution system, causing damage to more than 130 structures, and destroying five homes.
Firefighters fought more than 80 blazes and thousands of people were evacuated from their homes.
Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, the company held responsible for the disaster, pleaded guilty in federal court to pipeline safety law violations and negligence and agreed to pay a fine of $53 million.
The events ultimately cost the company more than $1 billion.
This evaluation marks the third consecutive year that the DPU’s Pipeline Safety Division has received a perfect score for the enforcement and implementation of federal pipeline safety standards.
Through rigorous enforcement, the Division now ensures that the investor-owned gas utilities, municipal gas departments, steam distribution companies, and operators of intrastate Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) facilities comply with both state and federal safety laws.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration regulates the safety of the transportation of energy and other hazardous materials. It must review annual progress reports, pipeline program procedures and records, and observe on-site inspections done by state safety regulators to adequately assess each state’s pipeline safety program when conducting evaluations.
Since 2022, the Pipeline Safety Division has scored the maximum possible points for both portions of PHMSA’s evaluation.
With legislative changes increasing penalties for gas operators that violate pipeline safety laws and regulations, the Pipeline Safety Division drove the reduction in damages through its enforcement, an increased field presence, and education.
The series of safety reforms resulting from the 2018 pipeline disaster that tragically took one life should ensure that nothing approaching the scale of that cataclysmic event will ever occur again.
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