What is the current state of the home building industry?
It has become much more difficult to be a home builder. The regulatory changes have been immense and it’s really one of the main contributing factors to the cost of homes in the state of Massachusetts. Regulations include zoning rules, wetlands regulations, endangered species rules, and energy efficiency rules. Regulations have always been around. It’s just that they’ve been getting more restrictive over the years. Massachusetts is in the top four most unaffordable places to live in the country along with San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. I don’t think anyone set out to have that happen, but when communities go to large-lot development, with a minimum of one acre or two acre zoning, you can only put an expensive home on that piece of property. That’s why the state’s affordable home statute, Chapter 40B, is such an important tool in this state. That says that every town has to have 10 percent of its housing stock in homes that can be sold to people making 80 percent of the median
