There’s no denying that the cost of living in Boston seems to get increasingly steeper by the day, especially after ranking #1 for quality of life. From outrageous parking to incredulous landlord rent and outrageous home purchasing prices-we can just hear the cha-ching’s flying.
Manhattan’s era as the most expensive city on the East Coast, is over. Boston outranked both Manhattan and Miami in terms of cost of living looking at housing.
Published by Zoocasa, an intelligent real estate company that sold over $1 billion in home sales, the data determines affordability by exclusively considering housing affordability. Of course, there are many other factors that play into the cost of living.
The data study compared the median home cost to the median income of each city. Analyzing these two data points, Zoocasa determined the final “max affordability of median-income households.” The difference between these two numbers determined the most expensive cities in North America.
The most expensive city on the list is San Francisco, California. Following is San Diago, Vancouver, and next Los Angeles. Boston is the fifth city on the list overall, but fourth American city.
Boston is also the first East Coast city on the list, making it the most expensive city on the East Coast. Here are the top ten most expensive cities in North America based on the difference between maximum affordability and median home price:
- San Francisco, California
- San Diego, California
- Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Los Angeles, California
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Toronto, ON, Canada
- Miami, Florida
- New York City, New York
- Seattle, Washington
- Hamilton-Burlington, ON, Canada
The median home cost in Boston is $785,000. The median income of Boston is $89,212. According to Zoocasa this makes the max affordability of median-income households in Boston $399,536. The overall difference between the median home cost ($785,000) and the max affordability ($399,536) amounts to -$385,464.