The Boston Globe reports:
PEOPLE HAVE long suspected that local regulations are a major cause of the crisis in Massachusetts' housing affordability. In a paper recently issued by Pioneer Institute and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, Harvard University economist Edward L. Glaeser demonstrates that the decline in supply is steeper and more crippling than anyone had imagined. He conclusively demonstrates how the decline in supply due to regulation is driving up housing prices across the region.
Since 1980, three regions in Eastern Massachusetts have experienced 200 percent price growth, placing them in the top four regions nationwide for price growth. In the past, high real estate prices stimulated a boom in construction, but the current price explosion has brought no increase in the issuance of building permits. In the 1960s, there were 172,459 units permitted in the Boston metropolitan area; in the 1980s, 141,347. Despite the sharp rise in prices in the 1990s, only 84,105 units were permitted.
More worrisome perhaps, regulations appear to have exacerbated impacts on the environment. Local regulations favor the most expensive type of housing development (single-family homes on large lots); discourage compact development (townhouses, multifamily, small lot single-family homes, and accessory apartments); and hamstring developers' ability to produce thoughtful designs that protect the environment. As the Massachusetts Audubon Society's ''Losing Ground" report in 2003 points out, the few houses being built consume excessive amounts of land (40 acres per day).
A majority of homeowners don't mind limiting supply so those not wealthy are zoned out.The essence of Blue state values are regulations and zoning which means a contempt for the free market and property rights.Those without capital are encouraged to move to another place.No wonder why Massachusetts has lost population the last two years.No other state can say that.Here's
Mitt Romney's dig on Houston:
“This is what happens when you don’t have zoning.”