Rent, home values, family budgets, pay and taxes for the Boston metro area, county by county.
Across the 7 counties in the metro with their own Zillow home value, the median typical home is worth $731,630. Values changed +1.9% over the past year and +24.4% over five years at the median county. A typical home costs 4.92 years of median family income at the median county.
With 10% down at 7.03%, the average 30-year rate on September 24, 2026, that home costs about $5,618 a month with tax, insurance and mortgage insurance, which takes $240,769 a year of income under the usual 28% guideline. The median family can afford its own county's typical home in none of the 7 counties, against 44.9% of counties nationally. Try it with your own income.
The most expensive counties in the metro are Middlesex County, MA ($825,261), Norfolk County, MA ($781,743) and Suffolk County, MA ($763,194); the least expensive are Strafford County, NH ($513,513), Rockingham County, NH ($636,239) and Plymouth County, MA ($657,248).
The Economic Policy Institute prices what a modest but adequate standard of living costs in every county. In the median county of the metro, that comes to $66,536 a year for one adult and $145,200 for two adults and two children, of which $31,938 is childcare, against national averages of $47,367 and $101,771. Median family income is $133,494 in the median county.
Prices across Massachusetts as a whole run 5.8% above the national average and rents 28.1% above the national average, by the Bureau of Economic Analysis's state measure. Median pay across all jobs in the state is $63,590 a year. Massachusetts's top income tax rate on wages is 9%. These are statewide figures, not measured for the metro itself. The metro spans parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Compare a salary with another state or work out take-home pay.
| Essex County, MA | $731,630 | +1.9% | $2,648 | $125,134 | $145,110 |
| Middlesex County, MA | $825,261 | +1.4% | $3,222 | $160,640 | $165,195 |
| Norfolk County, MA | $781,743 | +1.9% | $2,953 | $163,845 | $176,962 |
| Plymouth County, MA | $657,248 | +3.9% | $2,785 | $133,494 | $145,200 |
| Rockingham County, NH | $636,239 | +3.0% | $2,590 | $138,240 | $130,675 |
| Strafford County, NH | $513,513 | +2.9% | $2,126 | $118,846 | $125,810 |
| Suffolk County, MA | $763,194 | +0.3% | $3,361 | $110,193 | $168,036 |
A dash means the source publishes no figure for that county. Metro membership follows Zillow's own county-to-metro assignment.
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Cost of living · Income tax · Child care costs
Metro areasBoston, MA · Worcester, MA · Springfield, MA
Run the numbersTake-home pay in Massachusetts · What a salary is worth in Massachusetts · How much rent you can afford · What a car costs in Massachusetts
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