Some Newton Housing Facts

Updated 11/18/20

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• The median sales price for a detached single-family house has increased 70% in the past 10 years, from $737,750 to $1,260,000.    

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• Compared with 2010, Newton in 2019 had 4,200 fewer households with annual incomes of less than $100,000, and 3,800 more households with annual incomes greater than $200,000.

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• Only 27% of our school employees live in Newton.

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• Over 30% of households—including over 75% of low-income residents—are cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

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• Only half of the 449 households with portable housing vouchers administered by the Newton Housing Authority were actually able to find a home in Newton.

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• 76% of “developable” land in Newton is zoned for residential use, and on 80% of that, only detached single-family houses can be built “by right,” without a special permit.

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• We have 2,425 deed-restricted homes for low- to moderate-income households (earning up to 80% of AMI)—but almost 3.5 times that many (8,105) eligible households (see 2019 Newton income limits and max affordable rents).

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• We are less racially diverse than Massachusetts as a whole: Only 3.1% of our population is Black or African-American (vs. state's 6.7%), and only 5.5% is Hispanic or Latino (vs. state's 11.2%).

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• We are only permitting 20.6% of the housing we should, relative to our proportional need. This is in contrast to Boston (109.8%), Cambridge (78.1%), Somerville (46.8%), and Watertown (131.5%).     

Many of these numbers come from the Newton Leads 2040 Housing Strategy (2016).

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The source for the last two bullets is the 2019 Greater Boston Housing Report Card.