On October 1, 2025, Way Finders and our research partner the UMass Donahue Institute launched the latest regional housing study—Building Homes. Building Futures. The State of Housing in Western Massachusetts—to a packed crowd at the University of Massachusetts Henry M. Thomas III Center in Springfield.

The event connected data, policy, and practitioner experience—painting a full picture of both challenges and opportunities. Along with housing supporters and advocates, the event assembled elected officials, policy makers, and media outlets. As I said in my remarks, we’re not trying to capture and hold this data. We want to share it widely, especially with the 101 cities and towns in western Massachusetts, to inspire housing discussions, policies, and investments that meet a community’s housing needs.

If western Massachusetts were a state, we’d be at the very bottom of the list when it comes to building housing.

One headline data point the study calls out is how far behind western Massachusetts lags in terms of housing production, as measured by the number of building permits issued per 1,000 residents. Our four counties issue just 0.8 permits per 1,000 residents—compared to 1.7 statewide and 4.1 nationwide.

A new leap forward

On a brighter note, I’m especially excited to share that the 2025 western Massachusetts housing study not only updates and expands upon our 2021 effort—namely to include Berkshire County and show where we are at post-pandemic—but also takes a new leap forward by offering online tools with tailored data for each community.

Making meaningful changes to address our housing challenges will take action from all of us. Here are some things you can do to help:

• Use the tools to look up your community’s housing data and related needs. See how new housing development may affect your community’s schools, emergency services, taxes, and more. You may be surprised by what you see! Some common objections to new housing—such as “We’ll need to build new schools” and
  “We can’t afford to expand our emergency services”—are not supported by data.
• Speak up locally. Attend public meetings to share the data and voice support for housing in your community.
• Join regional community conversations. We will be bringing this data to local forums across the region—stay tuned for opportunities to take part.

Visit our website to view the report, summary, tools, and event coverage, or to view the entire presentation and panel discussion with housing experts from all four counties.