TOWN OF NATICK Housing Production Plan

1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Figure 7
2009
Source: Town of Natick Building Inspector
Vacancy
The Foundation for Growth created a working paper to project housing construction needs for
the state under a variety of possible economic scenarios through the year 2020 (Lindsay
Koshgarian; Lindsay Koshgarian, October 29, 2010). In their findings, they assumed that a
healthy vacancy rate is defined as the rate at which prices neither rise nor fall, and has been
estimated by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies for the purposes of national housing
projections to be 1.5 percent for owner‐occupied housing and 7.4 percent for rental housing
(McCue, November 2007). The report stated that rental vacancy rate should be close to 7.4
percent to avoid unnecessary price inflation.
The report highlighted the following information:
In 2008, Massachusetts had a shortage of 20,116 housing units statewide, if vacancy rates
needed for healthy markets are considered.
In 2008, the Boston Metro region had a shortage of 14,343 units, reflecting shortages in
both single- and multi-family housing units, and 10,330 for multi-family units alone.
Rental vacancy rates were lowest for multi‐family housing in Massachusetts in Metro
Boston (4.5 percent).
They forecasted population growth in Massachusetts from 2008-2020 is projected to be
11.6% growth for person’s age 25 to 34 year old.
They forecasted for Massachusetts a gap in housing supply of 33,775 multi-family units,
including 20,651 in Greater Boston.
In 2010, 5.1% of housing units in Natick were vacant, indicating that Natick has reached
equilibrium in terms of supply and demand for housing. This vacancy rate, which has
increased since 2000, is identical to that of Middlesex County and almost half the vacancy rate
of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as shown in Table 24. It should be noted that the
38 | P a g e L D S C o n s u l t i n g G r o u p , L L C
2010
2011
1/12 to 4/12
New Construction
Alteration