What the Choke Point Index Measures

The Workforce Choke Point Ratio measures how much the minimum cost to deliver a new code-compliant home in a given state exceeds the maximum mortgage a household earning the national non-metropolitan median income can qualify for.

A positive ratio means workforce housing construction is mathematically unfinanceable for the median workforce family without subsidy. A negative ratio means new homes are within reach. The ratio isolates the supply-side problem: it measures the cost of creating new supply relative to the income of the intended buyer, independent of existing home prices, rents, or inventory.

Click here to download the report.

Many residents make too little to buy at market rate but too much to qualify for subsidies. 

Massachusetts is now the second most expensive state in the nation for workforce homeownership, trailing only Connecticut. Many working families find themselves trapped in a housing gap — earning too much to qualify for assistance programs, yet not enough to afford a newly built home.

Click here to read the full analysis to learn how construction costs, land-use regulations, and financing constraints are shaping the state’s housing crisis.

This is the distinct scarcity of 2026—not a shortage of land, labor, or human desire, but a scarcity of permission.

By Jonathan Tower, 

CEO, Arctaris Impact Investors, LLC

Click here to read the full article from Forbes.

THE AMERICAN BUILDER ACT: Restoring the Ladder of Ownership – A Market-Based Framework to Build 500,000 Starter Homes Without New Spending.

By Jonathan Tower, 

CEO, Arctaris Impact Investors, LLC

Click here for more.