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Cost and Its Consequences

A synopsis of key measures of housing costs, homes available to different income levels and historical trends

It’s well known that Massachusetts housing is too expensive. Recent reports have ranked Massachusetts as having the 2nd highest cost of living in the country. While the state also has the second highest median income of any state, at $101,000, it’s still not enough for middle income households to find homes they can afford.

This section summarizes a few key measures of housing cost, including homes available to households at different income levels, how this has changed over time, and how this varies across the state. It also explores the consequences that result from high housing costs: cost burden, housing instability, overcrowding, displacement, homelessness, and outmigration.

Cost and Consequences -- Highlights

  • Median home prices have risen 73% since 2000, while median household income has risen only 4% over the same period, after adjusting for inflation.  As a result, fewer than one quarter of home sales from 2010 – 2019 were affordable to low-moderate income households. Lower-cost rentals are also vanishing.
  • Household budgets are also burdened by rising insurance costs (up 40% since 2017); transportation costs ($13,000 annually for the average household with a car); and utilities such as heat, electricity, and broadband service.
  • About 100,000 low-income households receive rental housing vouchers, which provide an average benefit exceeding $1,500 per month at the end of 2024. With rising rents and EOHLC policy changes that allow more flexibility, the cost of each voucher is increasing. 

Measuring Housing Affordability  

Other Housing Costs 

Tax Deductions for Owners and Renters 
  • The number of households paying more than 30% of their income has been rising across all income groups.  More than one quarter of middle-income households are cost burdened, and more than three quarters of very low-income households.
  • Eviction rates have rebounded since the pandemic moratorium. There were 27,000 eviction filings for nonpayment of rent in 2023, of which 9,000 resulted in an eviction.
  • Homelessness of both individuals and families has been on the rise, even after accounting for the recent migrant crisis.  Massachusetts now has the nation’s 5th largest homeless population.
  • Some people cope with high housing costs by living with parents, roommates or other families; others simply move out of state. There are an estimated 49,000 overcrowded households, 108,000 “missing households” that didn’t form due to high housing costs, and 400,000 adult children living with their parents. On net, Massachusetts lost nearly 24,000 prime working age adults to other states in 2022. 

Overcrowding, Doubling Up, Living with Parents 

Homelessness 

Outmigration and loss of talent 

Cost and Consequences Table of Contents

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