Middle-income Massachusetts homebuyers now have a blunt new reality check. A statewide affordability calculator from The Boston Globe lets residents plug in their income and see what they can actually afford to buy. Using standard mortgage math and typical tax and insurance assumptions, the tool converts annual income into a maximum home price and then maps out where that budget still works. For many buyers, the result is a hard truth: closer-in suburbs are slipping out of reach.
How the Globe's calculator works
The Globe's tool is built on recent home-price data and assumes a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. It bakes in homeowner's insurance and property taxes, and treats the buyer as if they have no other debts on the books. To keep things straightforward, the calculator deliberately leaves out closing costs and mortgage-insurance premiums, so the numbers are a clean snapshot rather than a full closing disclosure.
For its affordability line, the tool leans on a 31 percent debt-to-income guideline, a common benchmark for lenders and one described by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If the projected monthly housing payment would chew up more than 31 percent of a household's income, the calculator treats that home as out of bounds.
What the numbers show
The market backdrop helps explain why the Globe bothered to build this thing in the first place. Statewide median single-family sale prices landed in the low-to-mid $600,000s in 2025, with one tally putting the figure around $638,000, according to The Warren Group. On the income side, U.S. Census QuickFacts data show a roughly $104,000 median household income in Massachusetts for 2020–2024 estimates.
Put together under the Globe's assumptions, that gap between paychecks and listing prices is exactly what squeezes many middle-income households out of most Greater Boston communities. On the calculator's map, a lot of the pins near the urban core drift from "stretch" territory into "no way" and push buyers toward less expensive corners of the state.
Why this matters for first-time buyers
National research backs up the story the map is telling. In its 2025 State of the Nation's Housing report, the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies notes that, using a 31 percent lender rule, a buyer often needs an annual income of about $126,700 to comfortably afford the median-priced home. That pressure is even stronger in high-cost metros, where local median prices sit above statewide averages and drive the required incomes still higher.
The Globe's calculator essentially brings those national and statewide trends down to street level, turning them into a town-by-town snapshot for readers who want to see where, exactly, the math starts to work again.
Help and next steps for buyers
For those staring at a lot of red on the map, there is at least some help on the margins. Governor Maura Healey and MassHousing recently rolled out expanded interest-free down-payment assistance of up to $25,000 for eligible first-time buyers, according to Mass.gov. That kind of boost can be enough to close the gap between what a household can safely borrow and what a seller will accept.
Inside Boston, prospective buyers can also look at the city's ONE+Boston and Boston Home Center programs, while statewide offerings like the Massachusetts Housing Partnership's ONE Mortgage and related down-payment options provide grants and interest-rate buydowns that may shift a community from "off-limits" into "maybe." For more details on those programs, see MHP.
Ultimately, the Globe's calculator is a quick way to experiment with different incomes and down-payment scenarios and get a rough sense of where a given budget might stretch in Massachusetts. It is best used as a starting point. Real-world offers still need to factor in any outstanding debts, current mortgage rates, closing costs, and local property-tax quirks before anyone commits to a final number.
