Surveying Missing Middle Housing—Trends in the United States and Massachusetts

Missing middle housing—a term referring to the building types between a single-family home and a mid-rise apartment building—is increasingly viewed by policymakers, housing advocates, architects, land use planners, and developers as one possible solution to the affordable housing crisis in Massachusetts and across the United States. This scale of housing is ideal for urban and suburban infill sites, fits a wide range of housing preferences, phases of life, and budgets, and is often built by developers invested in their local communities. However, zoning regulations, development review processes, financing structures, and an anti-density land use paradigm, among other obstacles, have made missing middle housing harder to develop than it should be.

Our new report, Unlocking the Missing Middle, will examine three aspects of middle housing. Part 1, "Surveying Missing Middle Housing—Trends in the United States and Massachusetts," provides an overview of this housing typology, along with major obstacles and opportunities to its greater production; Part 2 will explore policy solutions from other states and municipalities delivering missing middle housing to the market; and Part 3 will suggest wraparound supports beyond policy to enable more missing middle housing construction at scale.