A new study pegs the annual pre-tax income needed for a single adult at about $139,776, while a working family of four would have to pull in roughly $368,742. Pair that with local housing data showing a so-called starter home in Greater Boston now costs just over $500,000 and demands a household income above $162,000, and the gap between median pay and what counts as “comfortable” is starting to look less like a crack and more like a canyon, as per SmartAsset.
What ‘comfortable’ really means in this study
Those eye-popping salary targets come from a SmartAsset analysis built around the popular 50/30/20 budget formula. The firm started with the MIT Living Wage Calculator to price out basic necessities, then scaled those costs so 30% of pre-tax income could go to wants and 20% to savings, producing the final salary estimates for major cities.
In other words, this study is not asking how little someone can scrape by on. It is explicitly measuring what it takes to have some discretionary breathing room, cover essentials and still put money away for the future. As CBS Boston notes, Boston lands near the top of the national pack under this definition of “comfortable.”
Starter homes slipping out of reach
The squeeze gets even tighter once you look at the ownership ladder. The Boston Foundation’s 2025 Greater Boston Housing Report Card finds that a household now needs more than $162,000 a year to afford a starter home in the region, with the typical entry-level place priced at just over $500,000.
The Boston Foundation also estimates that only about 15% of renter households currently have the income needed to buy those starter homes. That tiny slice of eligible buyers underscores how few people have a realistic shot at ownership, and local leaders warn that a mix of stagnant wages and soaring prices is reshaping where middle-income workers can actually live.
What this math means for typical Bay Staters
For most residents, those “comfortable” salary targets are not just a stretch, they are well beyond reach. Boston’s median household income is roughly $97,791, according to CBS Boston, which leaves many households two or more pay grades shy of the benchmark.
Voters are noticing. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll last fall found that about one in three Massachusetts voters have seriously considered leaving the state because of the high cost of living. Respondents told pollsters that utility bills, health care, housing and groceries are putting the most pressure on household budgets, and the survey’s findings have added political urgency to long-simmering affordability complaints.
Renters feeling the pinch too
It is not just would-be buyers doing the financial gymnastics. Reporting summarized by Axios notes that a worker needs about $127,000 a year to afford the typical Boston rent, another income threshold that many households cannot hit.
Layer student loans, child care and commuting costs on top of that, and even six-figure earners can find their budgets stretched thin. The result is familiar across the region: longer commutes, more roommates and growing pressure on local officials to confront both housing supply and wage growth.
Policy options such as expanding starter-home construction, revising zoning, subsidizing more housing and boosting take-home pay are all on the table, but advocates say it will likely take a combination of these moves to shrink the gap. For now, the SmartAsset benchmarks mainly confirm what many locals already feel in their wallets every month: in Boston, living “comfortably” increasingly requires paychecks that most households simply do not have.
