In the Media

At its peak in 2022, 14.2 per 1,000 people were relocating within the country, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS). In 2024, the latest data available, this number had dropped to 2.8 per 1,000 people.

New research shows that design competitions are opening the door to innovative solutions that are helping legacy housing players rethink and reimagine how to approach age-old challenges. This study from Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies reports that design competitions can promote public engagement, create trust in government-led efforts, and build capacity in the public and private sectors.

“The door to homeownership in the Boston area has really been shut,” said Daniel McCue, a senior research associate at Harvard’s housing studies center. “There are hundreds of thousands of people here staring at these numbers saying, ‘Who can actually afford this?’ ”

As a recent working paper from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies explains, during the pandemic years, rural areas saw an inflow of transplants from larger, often more expensive metros as the rise of remote work allowed them to shop for homes further afield. “As a result, net domestic migration—an important driver of housing demand—turned positive in nonmetro counties for the first time in at least a decade,” write the paper’s authors, senior research associate Alexander Hermann and research analyst Peyton Whitney.

It’s a piece of financial advice that’s been around for generations: When searching for a place to live, don’t spend more than 30% of your income on rent. But with housing costs driving inflation today, is that guideline still realistic? By one measure, nearly two-thirds of working-age renters were cost-burdened in 2023, the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard found.

In a nondescript office over One Bow Street in Harvard Square, the Joint Center for Housing Studies keeps a finger on the pulse of America’s housing markets — and tries to connect city planners, advocates, and business groups to solve some of the country’s thorniest issues.

In a three-part series, the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University examined the loss of middle housing in Massachusetts in the context of the ongoing housing crisis that the state, and the nation, is facing. The series released six recommendations for how the state can reinvigorate the market for missing middle homes and, subsequently, help boost affordable housing options.

Regulators who approve premium hikes try to keep them at a minimum to prevent a price shock to policyholders. “But if the cost of doing business rises for an insurer and the regulatory regime doesn’t allow prices in the marketplace to rise at a commensurate level, then private insurers might simply choose to not do business in a certain area,” said Steven Francis Koller, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Home Depot’s results don’t capture the whole picture of what’s going on in the $600 billion home improvement industry, said Rachel Drew at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Drew said the indicators she tracks — including potential buyers coming off the sidelines and increases in permits for larger projects — still point to slow but steady growth in home improvement going forward.

According to researchers, rent increases are outpacing growth in household income since 2001, leaving more Americans to spend over 30 percent of their income on housing — the generally accepted threshold of affordability.