ARAACtional exuberance : lessons and prospects for age-restricted active adult housing development in Massachusetts

Abstract

In the last fifteen years, Massachusetts and neighboring states have experienced explosive growth in a hitherto alien form of residential development to the region: the age-restricted active adult retirement community (ARAAC). The growth proved too much for the market to handle, and now developers and municipalities alike are coping with the fallout from oversupply, partially completed projects, and recession-dampened demand. This thesis describes and analyzes the factors that contributed to the current crisis of ARAAC oversupply in Massachusetts. Based on interviews with town officials, developers, and industry observers and analysts, I find that much of the responsibility for this falls upon municipalities, who failed to adequately plan around ARAACs and were often only too eager to approve projects in the belief that they would bring a fiscal windfall. After a thorough exegesis of the legal, policy, and economic factors at play in this finding, I propose a new framework that municipalities can use to better manage the supply and form of ARAACs and conclude with key findings and recommendations directed at municipalities.