Mass. Housing slowdown blamed on local rules

It appears that housing prices have topped in Massachusetts. The Boston Globe reports:

Boston-area cities and towns are driving up housing prices by forcing developers to conform to an array of land-use rules that make it difficult to build new homes, according to a report that will be released this week.


The report, which is based on a two-year survey of land-use rules in the 187 cities and towns within 50 miles of Boston, points to locally mandated lot sizes as large as 2 acres and overly restrictive wetlands and septic rules as the most significant barriers to housing construction. It also cites local prohibitions on irregularly shaped lots and ''growth caps" limiting the number of units that can be built in a year. The survey did not include the city of Boston itself, where development is denser, or Cape Cod.

Edward L. Glaeser, a Harvard University economics professor and the lead author of the study, said the oft-stated belief that housing in the Boston area is expensive because land is scarce is not accurate. Instead, Glaeser said, ''the housing affordability crisis in Boston is manmade, created fundamentally by regulation."

The Blue state of Massachusetts really doesn't like middle income people so they zone them out.It's no wonder that Massachusetts is the only state to lose population two years in a row.What went wrong in Massachusetts? Why don't they respect property rights?? It's probably not a place non-wealthy Democrats can afford to live.Could Texas have 6 of the America's 25 largest cities if they had Massachusetts style zoning codes? Blue state values are rather expensive.