By Sandra Smith
Capital News Service
Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order on Sept. 3 aimed at tackling Maryland’s escalating housing affordability crisis. The Housing Starts Here initiative seeks to expedite housing development, reduce production delays and make home ownership more accessible across the state.
According to the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), the state faces a deficit of around 96,000 housing units – a gap that has been widening over recent years.
The 2025 Maryland Housing Needs Assessment, an analysis of Maryland’s housing gap conducted by DHCD and The National Center for Smart Growth, reveals significant disparities in housing availability across the state. Counties like Montgomery and Howard have median home prices exceeding $600,000, making homeownership unattainable for low- and middle-income residents.
Conversely, areas such as Allegany and Wicomico counties report median home prices below $200,000, which indicates regional inconsistencies in the Maryland housing market.
The executive order will broadly target each county in Maryland in order to create more housing development throughout the state.
“ says that everybody has a piece of the housing crisis, and everybody deserves for their local and state governments to be working in concert to solve that crisis,” DHCD Secretary Jake Day said.
In more than half of Maryland counties, renters are spending more than one-third of their annual income on housing costs, which is considered unaffordable by federal standards.
While Maryland’s median income is 28 percent higher than the national median, the state’s median home price is 35 percent higher, highlighting the disproportionate cost of housing.
“How we got here is really the post-2008 financial crisis. It was real-estate driven… that had to do with risks that the financial industry took at the time,” Secretary Day said. “It led to a collapse in the economy, in residential home values and more. The over-correction of the market meant we stopped building houses at a pace that matched population growth.”
The Housing Starts Here Executive Order directs state agencies to identify underutilized state-owned properties suitable for transit-oriented development, aiming to increase housing density in areas with existing infrastructure.
Transit-oriented development is a strategy that promotes dense, mixed-use communities around transit to help increase ridership and the use of public transportation.
“There are a lot of benefits to it… . We want to develop state-owned land for transit-oriented development, since state-owned land is not currently taxable. There’s no revenue generation for the states or local jurisdictions. It also provides an opportunity for Marylanders to live closer to transit and use it more,” Maryland Department of Transportation’s Chief of Real Estate and Transit-Oriented Development David Zaidain said.
According to Zaidain, transportation is the second biggest household budget item behind housing. It costs roughly $600 a month for Marylanders to own a car, which is pushing the state towards more transit usage.
Zaidain also noted the climate change benefits that come with transit-oriented development.
The executive order directs the state to speed up timelines for housing permits and establish a state housing ombudsman, or overseer, to help projects move forward.
The legislation comes on the heels of a 2024 legislative package that made housing more affordable and accessible for Marylanders struggling with construction barriers, along with creating the Office of Tenant and Landlord Affairs.
The Housing Starts Here order also directs agencies to track housing production progress annually, coordinate with local governments to address regional shortages and ensure accountability across jurisdictions.
By centralizing oversight and removing barriers, the administration aims to close the housing deficit and expand affordable options for Marylanders in the years ahead.
“When regulatory processes add cost, that cost has to be recouped – either with higher rents or a higher sales price. So, the more regulatory burden we place, the more likely it is that we’re just producing expensive for people to live,” Secretary Day said. “By cutting time and money out of the process, by streamlining it, we can make it easier to get to the finish line.”