Election 2026 › Ballot questions
Question 7
Starter homes
This question asks voters if the state should relax zoning regulations for single-family homes in areas served by public water and sewer systems, streamlining the permitting process to build on smaller lot sizes.
What your vote means
If this passes
It would prevent municipalities from requiring more than 5,000 square feet and 50 feet of frontage to build a single family home on lots served by public sewer and water. The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities would be tasked with creating and enforcing regulations for compliance.
If this fails
That leaves lot size restrictions and utility requirements as they are: largely a matter of local control with some rules set by the state like building codes, broad floodplain or wetlands regulations, and specific zoning allowances for small accessory dwelling units.
The breakdown
Massachusetts’s housing market is infamously tight and cripplingly expensive. To meet pent-up demand and population growth, the state estimates about 222,000 units have to be built by 2035. But where, and for whom? This ballot measure is taking aim at a pillar of local control: that cities and towns generally have the power to set their zoning standards and minimum lot requirements. This has led to a patchwork of zoning regulations across the state. Some municipalities require a single-family home to be built on just 3,000 square feet while others require more than triple that amount. That makes some municipalities much harder to build in.
The state has taken a few swings at the issue. In 2021, Gov. Charlie Baker signed an economic development bill that included provisions creating the multi-family MBTA Communities housing law and making it easier to change local zoning by a simple majority vote of local legislative bodies.
Yet, the proportion of affordable starter homes is dwindling. According to state data, Massachusetts single-family home prices were at the national average in 1980, but since then have increased more than any other state. The median single family home price jumped 10 percent between 2023 and 2024, up to $610,000. The “Legalize Starter Homes” campaign thinks a bit over a tenth of an acre, in most cases, is plenty of room to build a small house, though opponents argue local officials — not a one-size-fits-all state law — are the best arbiters of how much housing density a community can handle.
The campaign is led by Andrew Mikula, a Pioneer Institute senior housing fellow, and supported by pro-housing organizations like Abundant Housing Massachusetts. The opposition includes groups like the Massachusetts Municipal Association, a government trade organization that wants to maintain local control, and some groups of residents across the state.
For a time, it looked like voters would have two ballot measures attempting to get a handle on the Bay State’s housing crisis. The starter home proposal aims to jumpstart production, and an analysis from the Tufts Center for State Policy Analysis estimates the change could create anywhere from 350 to 1,200 new units per year.
On the flip side, a ballot measure that was struck down by the state’s high court proposed a strict rent control cap. Both would wrench away some local control by creating new statewide rules.
Effective date
Roughly a month after the election.
What this does NOT change
Cities and towns would still be allowed to regulate many aspects of those single-family homes, including their height, distance from neighboring buildings, open space, parking requirements, and whether they can be rented out on a short-term basis.
How did we get here?
Massachusetts's housing crisis is hardly a new development, nor is local resistance to more density. The 2021 economic development bill also created the MBTA Communities housing law, which requires municipalities served by the MBTA system to zone for multi-family housing near transit. Several cities and towns filed suit to block implementation of the law. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2025 that the sweeping requirements were mandatory and constitutional, though legal challenges have continued to bubble up through the courts.
The Healey administration’s major housing initiative came in 2024, through the Affordable Homes Act — a $5.16 billion housing bond bill that included policy provisions like legalizing accessory dwelling units without a special permit in single-family zoning districts statewide.
Housing advocates hoped to keep the momentum moving with the so-called YIMBY, or Yes in My Back Yard, bill this legislative term. That included an array of provisions like removing lot size requirements, allowing five units by-right on all lots served by water and sewer and three units on all non-sewered lots, and eliminating parking requirements near transit. It did not make it through both chambers, though an array of permitting changes found their way this session into environmental and economic development bills, which are still being negotiated.
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Economic development bill signed by Gov. Baker, enacting Housing Choice and creating the MBTA Communities law.
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Milton voters reject their town's compliant zoning plan, and Attorney General Andrea Campbell sues to force compliance.
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Gov. Maura Healey signs the Affordable Homes Act.
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The Supreme Judicial Court rules the MBTA Communities law is constitutional and enforceable by the attorney general.
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The "Legalize Starter Homes" initiative petition is filed, targeting lot size.
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Campaign certifies 89,216 signatures, sending the question to the Legislature.
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Legislature's deadline to act passes without action.
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Campaign gathers and files the additional 12,429 signatures needed to reach the ballot.
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Voters decide whether to approve the zoning proposal.
What is each side saying?
Supporters say
The state's particularly high minimum lot-size requirements have suppressed the construction of smaller, lower-cost homes and contributed to the severe housing shortage. Cities and towns can use lot size requirements to restrict the number of residents and exclude lower-income buyers from their communities.
Opponents say
Overriding local land use decisions could increase density in areas not equipped to handle it and tailored local control over zoning preserves character and infrastructure like the school and sewer systems.
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Election Day: November 3, 2026
Official state summary