New housing isn’t matched with community need.
Let’s build a truly affordable Boston for all residents.

The City measures the affordability of a unit based on household income, which is measured using a statistic called “area median income” or AMI. (This statistic is not a real measure of the incomes of Boston, people of color, or renters — more on this here.)  

44% of Boston’s households are what we call low and moderate income, making 0-60% AMI (0-60% of the area median income). This includes individuals making up to $68,580, and families of 4 making up to $97,920. But only 9% of new housing in Boston is affordable for these households.  

The households with the most need — facing the highest risk of displacement and paying most of their income on housing — make even less. 27% of Boston’s households make 0-30% AMI. This includes individuals making up to $34,290, and families of 4 making up to $48,960. But only 3% of new housing in Boston is affordable at these income levels!  

79% of new housing is market-rate, many with rents of more than $4000-5000 a month. The City’s analysis of new housing built between 2017 and 2021 estimated that about 56% of new housing is only affordable to households making over 120% of area median income ($137,160 for an individual or $195,840 for a household of 4).  

A household is called “housing cost burdened” if it pays more than 30% of its income on housing, such as rent/mortgage, utilities, and property taxes. There are many myths that low-income households have enough access to housing through public housing programs (even though waitlists are extremely long), and that its households making close to $100,000 a year that are suffering the most. In reality, 83% of rent burdened households in Boston are households that make low and moderate incomes (0-30% AMI and 31-60% AMI). Rent burdened households are also disproportionately people of color (more about racial justice and housing here). 

43,477 of the lowest-income renter households (making 0-30% AMI) pay more than 30% of their income on housing. That’s 77% of these households paying too much on rent. 54% of these households are severely rent burdened, paying more than 50% of their income on housing. 19,031 of moderate-income renter households (making 31-60% AMI) pay more than 30% of their income on housing. That’s 67% of these households paying too much on rent, and 26% of these households are severely rent burdened. 

The number of cost-burdened households drops for higher incomes. 4,686 of renter households making 61-80% AMI are rent burdened, or 51% (while 12% are severely rent burdened), and the number and percentage of rent burdened households continues to decline as incomes rise. 

We need to stop allowing massive amounts of unaffordable development that leave out Boston residents, further inequality and racism, and destabilize our communities. Instead, we need to keep our city diverse and welcoming to all by designing policies around truly affordable housing.