Cost of Living in Boston: A Guide for Homebuyers

Published on February 28th, 2024
12 min read

Joseph Gordon Associate Editor
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Joseph Gordon is an Associate Editor with HomeLight. He has seven years of experience reporting on the commercial real estate and insurance industries. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco.

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Are you considering a move to Boston? If you want to make Beantown your new home, you might want to know how the city’s cost of living compares to where you currently reside.

This guide breaks down the cost of living in Boston, from housing expenses to food and healthcare costs. We’ll provide data from the local cost of living index and comparison tools and look at how Boston ranks for livability compared to other U.S. cities.

We’ll also share a handy set of online resources to measure and compare the cost of living and expenses in other Massachusetts cities.

What makes up the ‘cost of living’ in Boston?

When you’re planning to live in a new city, the cost of living there will be a combination of expenses required to maintain your desired lifestyle. Cambridge Dictionary defines cost of living as “the amount of money people need to spend to buy basic goods or services such as food, clothes, and a place to live.”

This overall cost can vary significantly based on location, even within Massachusetts. But the living expenses you’ll pay for typically include the following categories:

Housing (mortgage/rent)
Energy (utility costs)
Food (groceries)
Transportation (vehicle or transit systems)
Healthcare (doctors, hospitals, dentists, etc.)

However, the costs often extend beyond these basics to cover other expenses, such as:

Clothing
Education
Childcare
Entertainment

These elements, when combined, establish the core costs associated with a particular way of living. However, the standard of living you achieve is primarily influenced by your income and debts and how the dollar amounts compare to the costs of basic needs in your location or, in this case, the Boston community where you might want to live.

Let’s take a quick look at some ways you can compare your current living cost with what you might experience if you move to Boston.

What’s a Boston cost of living index (CLI)?

A cost of living index (CLI) monitors how these basic expenses change over time in different states, cities, or regions. They provide a way to compare the price of maintaining a particular standard of living.

The CLI for a city like Boston is calculated by assessing the price of essential goods and services in different areas, such as housing, food, transportation, and healthcare.

A local index is typically standardized, with a base city assigned a baseline index value (usually set at 100). Other cities are then compared against this benchmark. For example, a Boston community with a CLI of 125 would signify that living there is 25% more expensive than the base location, while an index of 75 indicates it’s 25% less expensive.

A cost of living index will typically break down and score each basic expense by category. Here are separate scores for Boston from the AXIOS Boston Cost of Living Index:

Overall CLI score: 148
Housing: 227.1
Healthcare: 115.3
Transportation: 117.6
Misc. goods and services: 116.7
Grocery items: 105.9
Utilities: 138.5

Data source used: C2ER Council for Economic and Social Research

Cost perspective

While Boston’s overall cost of living is 48 points higher than the baseline established for the average U.S. cities, it’s well below the costs to live in Honolulu (72.9% above average) and San Francisco (69.5% more).

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Additional cost of living data for Boston

Now, look at real-world dollar amounts collected by various cost-of-living sources. Here’s more of what you can expect if you move to Boston.

Expatistan, a cost-of-living data site, provides these monthly cost estimates for Boston:

Family of four estimated monthly costs: $8,012
Single person estimated monthly costs: $5,304

Best Places lists these housing estimates on their Boston cost of living pages:

Boston housing data

Number of homes	300,437
Median home age	78 years
Median home cost	$656,500
Home appreciation rate (last 12 months)	10.7%
Home appreciation rate (last 5 years)	44.9%
Home appreciation rate (last 10 years)	103.4%
Property tax rate (per $1,000 of value)	$6.11
Property taxes paid (average home)	$3,731
Homes owned	31.5%
Housing vacant	9.5%
Homes rented	59.0%

Source: BestPlaces.com

Boston tax rates

State individual income tax rate: 5.0%
State sales tax rate: 6.25%
Boston sales tax rate: 0.0%
Effective property tax rate (percentage of home value): 0.78%

How does Boston rank for livability?

Along with the cost of living, you might be curious how Boston ranks as far as livability or quality of life. According to the AARP Livability Index of top communities in the U.S., Boston has an above-average quality of life score, ranking #07 out of the top 100 cities.

For their livability index, AARP separates cities into four size categories: Very Large, Large, Midsize, and Small. Boston falls in the “Large” city category.

The index then provides an overall score between 0-100 (higher is better), based on rankings from seven categories:

Overall Livability Score: 62
Housing (affordability and access): 52
Neighborhood (proximity and security): 77
Transportation (safety and convenience): 81
Environment (clean air and water): 58
Health (prevention, access, and quality): 72
Engagement (civic and social involvement): 62
Opportunity (inclusion and possibilities): 32

For perspective, the highest-ranked city scores in each category were:

Very Large: San Francisco, 66
Large: Madison, Wisconsin, 67
Mid-size: Portland Main, 68
Small: Aspen, Colorado, 73

No city earned a perfect score of 100. You can learn more about this livability index on AARP’s methodology page.

Check your current city’s livability score

AARP provides a Livability Index Search Page where it scores communities and even neighborhoods across the country for services and amenities that impact your life. You can check your current city score or others where you might like to live near Boston. The livability index Community Finder tool allows you to filter by location, community size, livability measures, and other features, such as state and local plans to create age-friendly communities.

Additional cost of living indexes

Here are some cost of living index links to research additional Massachusetts living expenses:

Statista: Provides free access to many basic statistics. Paid subscriptions are available for more detailed information about Massachusetts communities.
ACCRA (C2ER): Maintained by the Council for Community and Economic Research. This is a paid service that maintains one of the largest databases of cost of living metrics for Boston and other Massachusetts cities.
World Population Review CLI page: This website provides a free search-by-state tool at the bottom of its Cost of Living Index page.
Numbeo: This crowd-sourced CLI promotes itself as “the world’s largest database of user-contributed data about cities and countries worldwide.” This service can show you user-provided insights such as the cost of an inexpensive restaurant in Boston or the perceived presence of crime in different parts of Massachusetts. It’s free for personal use.

Why are people moving to (or from) Massachusetts?

According to the United Van Lines 47th Annual Movers Study that tracks migrations within the United States, here are why people are moving into Massachusetts or away to other states.

Primary reasons people are moving

Inbound	Reason for the move	Outbound
8.50%	Retirement	18.00%
5.30%	Health	2.80%
26.50%	Family	19.20%
7.90%	Lifestyle	16.00%
34.90%	Job	28.40%
0.00%	Cost	2.40%

Total inbound: 43.4%

Total outbound: 56.6%

Budgeting for your move to Boston

Below is a collection of handy online tools to help estimate your moving costs and living expenses in Boston — from how much you’ll need to pay a mover to how much your current home might sell for and the proceeds you can expect.

1. Online move cost estimators

With today’s smart technology, you can find a wide variety of tools to help you estimate the cost of paying for a mover or how to find a trusted mover for your relocation to Boston. Some examples include:

2. Cost of living calculators

Cost of living calculators differ from cost of living indexes. These tools, typically free, provide a comparison based on income and regional costs for housing, transportation, food, healthcare, and other necessities in the two locations you select.

For example, if you live in Denver, you can view a side-by-side cost comparison with Boston expenses — or other nearby Massachusetts cities. Some popular cost-of-living calculators include:

3. Living wage and budget calculators

Living Wage Calculator: Designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), this calculator can help you estimate the local wage rate that you’ll need as a full-time Boston worker in order to cover the costs of your family’s basic living expenses.
Family Budget Calculator: This tool, provided by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), estimates the income your family will need to attain a modest — yet adequate — standard of living in your new Boston community. Choose from 10 family types.

4. Homebuyer calculators

Home Affordability Calculator: Understand the costs of buying a home in Boston and find out how much home you can afford before you start shopping or planning a move.
Down Payment Calculator: Estimate how much you might need to put down on a home in Boston and learn more about the loan options that work best for you.
Closing Costs Calculator: Find out how much cash you’ll need for closing costs on a Boston house, including estimated lender and third-party fees.

5. Home seller calculators

Home Value Estimator: Get a preliminary estimate of what your current home is worth, along with options to help you get the best price when you’re ready to sell.
Best Time to Sell Calculator: Use this calculator that incorporates nationwide real estate transaction data to help time your move.
Agent Commissions Calculator: Learn how much you might pay in real estate agent commissions when selling a house in your current market.
Net Proceeds Calculator: Get a ballpark idea of the net proceeds you could earn from the sale of your existing home.

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Selling your current home and buying in Boston

To make your move smoother and less stressful, modern real estate solutions like HomeLight have created innovative programs to help you buy a house before selling your old one.

Watch the short video below to learn about HomeLight’s Buy Before You Sell program that lets you move into your new Boston home now and sell your current house with peace of mind and on your timeline.

Partner with a professional to find your new Boston home

As you plan your move, HomeLight can connect you with a top-performing, trusted real estate agent in your current city or in the Boston community where you’d like to live. We analyze over 27 million transactions and thousands of reviews to determine which agent is best for you based on your needs.

For the best of both worlds — coming and going — ask your agent about HomeLight’s Buy Before You Sell program to help take the uncertainty out of your Boston home purchase.

Header Image Source: (Osman Rana / Unsplash)

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Joseph Gordon

Associate Editor

Joseph Gordon is an Associate Editor with HomeLight. He has seven years of experience reporting on the commercial real estate and insurance industries. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco.