Massachusetts 2035 · 02 / 10

Housing

You will buy a home for 1/2 of today's price

The moonshot

The Manhattan Project of Housing

Make homes dramatically cheaper to produce. Bring Massachusetts builders, manufacturers, researchers, and communities together so people can buy a home for half of what an equivalent home costs today.

The opportunity

A picture of 2035

A teacher in Lowell picks up the keys to a new factory-built home. Her mortgage leaves room for groceries, savings, and a family. Across the street, apprentices are helping build the next block.

What we can build on

UMass Lowell's BuildSmart Housing Innovation TechHub is already bringing together research, manufacturing, policy, and community partners to make housing more affordable. Build on that effort to make Lowell a mecca for building homes at factory scale, drawing on Massachusetts universities, construction talent, modular builders, and suitable public land. 10

The gap to close

A cheaper wall panel does not automatically produce a cheaper home. Land, utilities, financing, approvals, and resale terms can absorb every construction saving. The target must be the price a household actually pays.

The work starts here.

Top three key initiatives

Make Massachusetts a center for factory-built housing

Build a statewide factory-built housing ecosystem, with UMass Lowell’s BuildSmart Housing Innovation TechHub as one foundation. Connect builders, manufacturers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and tradespeople across Massachusetts. Give them shared equipment and demonstration sites to develop better materials, robotics, modular construction, and repeatable designs, then turn those breakthroughs into factories delivering homes people can afford. 10

Make the final purchase price the test of success. Publish land, site work, utilities, construction, financing, fees, and developer margin, alongside any public subsidy or resale restriction. Compare completed homes with equivalent 2026 local homes in constant dollars. The goal is a home a household can buy for half the price.

Unlock land and make approvals repeatable

Open suitable public and underused land for housing through competitive leases, sales, and partnerships. Invest in the water, sewer, utilities, and transportation needed to support new homes. Prioritize infill, small lots, accessory homes, office conversions, and sites near jobs and useful transportation.

Create preapproved building designs that communities can adopt so successful projects can be repeated across Massachusetts. Coordinate state reviews through a Housing Production Office and propose a 120-day decision standard for complete, qualifying applications. Establish the necessary legal authority and give builders clear requirements and predictable timelines. Reward towns when homes are occupied.

Help every town find its identity and compete for its region

Help every town identify what it can become exceptionally good at, then align housing, infrastructure, workforce development, and business recruitment around that strength. Communities should compete to attract residents and bigger businesses while helping their region grow. Andover, Lawrence, and Chelmsford should all want Lowell's housing industry to succeed because its jobs, suppliers, and opportunities would benefit the entire Merrimack Valley.

Other towns can develop complementary specialties. Methuen could explore parking garages, charging, maintenance, and service facilities for future autonomous vehicle fleets from companies such as Tesla or Waymo, serving Lowell and Boston. Each town should have a clear answer to why people would choose to live there, why businesses would invest there, and how its success helps the region. These are opportunities to pursue with prospective operators, subject to the approvals needed for service.

The supporting work

Finish the zoning work and reward delivery

Advance multifamily housing in covered transit communities and other job centers. Tie infrastructure grants to completed homes, with school, water, and street capacity planned alongside growth.

Turn empty offices into homes statewide

Target 5,000 conversion homes by 2030. Screen buildings for workable layouts and renovation costs before committing public money.

Modernize building rules without compromising safety

Evaluate single-stair designs, small-lot subdivisions, and parking reforms with fire officials and building professionals. Adopt changes where evidence supports safe, less expensive homes.

Open faith-owned and nonprofit land

Create a Yes In God's Backyard pathway, with predevelopment help for congregations and nonprofits that want homes on underused land. Make local participation practical and transparent.

Launch First Home Commonwealth

Help teachers, nurses, tradespeople, and first-time buyers access the new supply. Pair assistance with production and durable affordability so public dollars do not simply bid up existing homes.

The path to 2035

Proposed milestones. Expand against evidence, delivery, and public value.

2027
Establish the baseline
Publish comparable local home prices and the full cost model. Build on UMass Lowell BuildSmart to select demonstration sites, develop repeatable designs, propose the permit clock, and procure the first factory-built homes. Work with neighboring towns on their economic strengths and show the public contribution per home.
2029
Prove the production model
Verify construction-cost reductions in occupied homes. Expand only the designs that pass inspections and lower the final price. Aim to restore a production pace above 20,000 permits a year.
2031
Make affordability repeatable
Scale factories, conversions, and public-land partnerships across multiple regions. Publish operating costs, household affordability, and repeat orders, alongside progress toward the 222,000-home ambition.
2035
Deliver the half-price home
Target a scalable class of starter homes priced at half the cost of comparable 2026 local homes in real terms. Pursue 222,000 additional homes over the 2024-2035 planning period, with supply keeping up with population growth.

Questions & answers

What does a home for half the price mean?

The production moonshot is a new, comparable starter home with a final purchase price at half the 2026 local baseline in real terms. An equivalent home that costs $1 million at the baseline would target a $500,000 purchase price. Publish the geography, size, quality, subsidy, and ownership terms so progress can be checked. This is a production goal, not a forecast for every existing property's value.

Will faster permitting overwhelm towns?

Put new homes where infrastructure can support them, and fund added capacity where it cannot. Towns should shape design and growth while meeting clear production obligations. Resolve legal authority openly through legislation and rulemaking.

What if a modular builder fails?

Use multiple suppliers, staged commitments, independent inspections, warranties, and completion security. Do not prepay an entire factory on the strength of a rendering. A public land contribution is a real cost and belongs on the scorecard.

Show the results.

The public scorecard

These are the measures we would publish to judge progress.

Fully loaded price versus comparable 2026 homes
Subsidy per home
Completions
Approval time
Housing costs as a share of household income

Sources & context

Reference notes dated September 16, 2026. Plans and proposals are distinguished from existing activity.

[10] UMass Lowell: BuildSmart Housing Innovation TechHub
Existing UMass Lowell-led effort focused on housing innovation, manufacturing, policy, financing, and testing. Expanding it into the factory-scale housing mission described here is a proposal.