To bring housing costs under control, Gateway Cities can’t just build a little more—they need to build fast enough and at a large enough scale to get ahead of both today’s pent-up demand and tomorrow’s growth. The inaugural Gateway Cities Housing Monitor estimated that this means roughly doubling the pace of new housing production between 2022 and 2032 compared to the previous decade. This year’s Housing Monitor shows that while production surged in 2023 and 2024, it may not be enough to meet demand if population growth continues near its historic rate. The Special Analysis section also shows why it’s important to make sure for-sale units are a reasonable share of that production, particularly in Gateway Cities low homeownership rates.

The Gateway Cities Housing Monitor is the MassINC Policy Center’s annual examination of housing trends across Massachusetts’ 26 Gateway Cities. Now in its second year, the Monitor builds on the 2024 inaugural edition with refined methods, expanded indicators, and a new digital format. Each of the five core sections appears as its own webpage with interactive charts, while a special analysis of the supply of homeownership opportunities is available both as a standalone feature and as part of the downloadable Executive Summary PDF. A link to the 2024 edition allows readers to trace how the Monitor—and Gateway City housing conditions—have evolved over time.