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Briefing
Recent Trends in Residential Segregation in New England
Residential segregation in Boston has drawn considerable attention in recent years, but much less notice has been given to the issue with respect to the rest of New England. This regional brief focuses on residential segregation between all minority groups and non-Hispanic white residents in metro areas throughout the region. New England’s population is predominately non-Hispanic white; however, the region has diversified considerably since 1990, as most of the population growth has occurred among minority groups. Residential segregation by race/ethnicity declined over that same period in ...
Briefing
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on New England Homeowners and Renters
Job losses and likely layoffs related to the COVID-19 pandemic will put many New England residents at risk of not being able to pay their mortgage or rent and needing financial assistance and state-government safeguards to remain in their homes. Economic interventions from Congress, primarily through the federal CARES Act, include direct payments to households and increased unemployment insurance benefits that are expected to provide vital support to many of these households for the next three to four months. Even with these efforts, 2 to 3 percent of New England homeowners and 9 to 13 ...
Briefing
A Portrait of First District Banks
This Regional Brief sketches a portrait of the banks in the Federal Reserve System’s First Federal Reserve District, which includes all of New England except Connecticut’s Fairfield County. It highlights a few characteristics that distinguish the district’s banking industry, noting that, relative to the rest of the United States, larger shares of the region’s banks are state (Federal Reserve System) member banks, state savings banks, and cooperative banks, and the share of banks classified as community banks is twice as large.
Briefing
Evictions in New England and the Impact of Public Policy during the COVID-19 Pandemic
To stave off a flood of evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was the feared outcome when millions of renting households were suddenly unemployed, Congress and many states implemented policies that included eviction moratoriums and federally funded rental-assistance programs. These programs succeeded in keeping millions of renters housed and driving eviction rates down in the early months of the pandemic. The number of evictions filed in New England declined 56 percent in 2020 and 39 percent in 2021 compared with the average number of evictions filed annually from 2017 through ...
Briefing
Rental Affordability and COVID-19 in Rural New England
Although a shortage of affordable rental housing is often framed as an urban-area issue, rural communities also suffer from this problem. On average, rural and urban renters spend similar shares of their income on rent and have comparable rates of housing-cost burden. Years of slow income growth and skyrocketing rents, particularly during the 2000–2010 period, have eroded slack in household budgets that may have gone toward other expenses or toward savings. The coronavirus pandemic likely has exacerbated affordability problems by putting many rural residents out of work. The share of jobs ...
Briefing
Geographic Mobility Trends: New Englanders Still Aren’t Moving as Much as They Did before the Pandemic
Changes in remote/hybrid workplace options and housing market conditions in New England and throughout the United States since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly affected people’s ability and willingness to relocate within a state, from one state to another, or from one region of the country to a different region. Businesses’ adoption of remote and hybrid work has weakened the traditional link between residence and workplace, affecting individuals’ choice of where to live. At the same time, persistently rapid growth in rent and house prices, along with fluctuations in ...
Briefing
Authorization to Work: The Prevalence of Occupational Licensing in New England
Proponents of occupational licensing—a policy that requires workers to obtain a government-awarded credential before they can legally practice certain professions—argue that it can reduce safety risks to consumers and improve the general quality of goods and services. Opponents argue that, given the mixed evidence of the policy’s benefits to consumers, it may needlessly impede workers’ ability to enter some professions. This Regional Brief examines the prevalence of occupational licensing in New England and considers the implications for the region’s labor markets and product ...
Briefing
Declining access to health care in northern New England
Access to health care is a major concern across the northern New England states?Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont?where rising operating costs and population loss threaten the stability of hospitals and other medical facilities that serve their surrounding rural communities. New analysis of financial data shows that many rural hospitals are operating at losses that are predictive of financial distress or even closure. Consequently, the communities served by these hospitals may be at risk of losing the benefits they provide to public health and the local economy. Addressing the financial ...
Briefing
Credit Card Delinquencies: Are New England Consumers Better Off?
Credit card accounts held by New England cardholders are less likely to carry a revolving balance or be delinquent compared with accounts held by cardholders in the rest of the country. That is the case for every income group.
Briefing
How the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed Household Migration in New England
The COVID-19 pandemic and the policies implemented to limit the spread of the virus brought about changes to domestic migration patterns in New England. Overall, the region lost about 50,000 fewer households to permanent out-migration in 2020 compared with 2019, as measured by United States Postal Service change-of-address requests. Every New England state except Massachusetts either lost fewer households or gained households for the first time since at least 2017. However, counties that added households generally saw an increase of less than 1 percent. The characteristics of a community ...