By Brooke Thomson
President & CEO

The Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a version of the Affordable Homes Act on June 3 that represents a monumental step forward in addressing the Commonwealth’s housing crisis.

That crisis has been a major challenge for AIM members who report that the soaring cost of housing in Massachusetts is driving some of our best and brightest employees to pull up stakes for less expensive regions of the country.

The House’s $6.5 billion version of Governor Maura Healey’s housing bond bill strikes a delicate balance by making investments that will help reduce the prohibitive cost of housing in the state without imposing any anticompetitive taxes. House members deserve tremendous credit for omitting from the bill a proposed transfer tax on real estate transactions worth more than $1 million, a policy that would have the opposite effect of increasing housing in Massachusetts. AIM’s Government Affairs team has strongly opposed this measure and will continue to do so.

The state Senate is now expected to debate and pass its own version of the housing measure. A conference committee will iron out differences between the two approaches before a final version is sent to Governor Healey.

AIM unequivocally supports the objectives of the Affordable Homes Act – to accelerate the supply of housing and moderate the prices our employees must pay to live and work here in the commonwealth. A business owner who responded to the May AIM Business Confidence survey spoke for many employers when he wrote: “Finding qualified workers is challenging, more so when some of our existing employees tell us they can no longer afford to remain in Massachusetts.”

Home prices have surged over the last four years as pandemic-fueled home-buying frenzies collided with housing shortages. The median home price in Massachusetts hit $622,639 in April, a 9 percent jump that left the commonwealth with the fifth highest home prices in the nation (after California, Hawaii, Washington and the District of Columbia).

State officials estimate that Massachusetts needs to build 200,000 additional housing units to meet market demand.

The House bill includes more than $1 billion dollars for affordable-housing funds, $2 billion for the state’s public housing system and a provision to change zoning codes across the state to allow property owners to build so-called “accessory dwelling units” up to 900 square feet on their lots “as of right.” The provision was one of AIM’s legislative priorities in the housing debate.

The bill would also establish a $150 million tax credit program for office-to-apartment conversions.

House members elected not to include the local option to adopt a real estate transaction fee of 0.5 percent to 2 percent on the portion of a property sale more than $1 million – or the county median home sale price. The fee would have increased the cost of business transactions that involved the transfer of real estate.

The House affordable Homes Act is as close to an ideal bill as we’re likely to see on such a complex economic issue. AIM believes it offers a workable foundation for a final housing bill before the Legislature ends its two-year session in July.

I invite you to contact the AIM Government Affairs team with your comments. Please email Stephanie Swanson, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs, at sswanson@aimnet.org.