An outflux of young, talented workers has led Massachusetts policymakers at every level to place “affordability” at the top of the political agenda.
This Claude-generated set of tools allows you to quantify how affordable – or unaffordable – Massachusetts is compared to other states. It works
with median or average values, comparing metrics like the average tax burden state-to-state; sources are given. Some caveats:
== The tax burden figure is for FY 2023, the most recent available at the municipal level, and the other calculations use calendar year 2024.
== The child care calculator uses center-based care, not home-based, which is less costly.
== New Mexico has free universal child care, so comparisons with N.M. are skewed.
Overall Affordability Check
If I move from to and I , my total annual cost will change by −$8,225/year (cheaper)
Include:
| State & local taxes | −$3,292 |
| Housing (owner, adjusted) | −$4,824 |
| Energy (electricity, gas & heating fuel) | +$60 |
| Health insurance, your share (single) | −$169 |
| Child care (one 4-year-old, center) | not included |
| Net change per year | −$8,225 |
Housing is adjusted to avoid double-counting: property taxes and energy costs are stripped out of the housing figure because they are already counted in the Taxes and Energy rows above.
Sources: Taxes — U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State & Local Government Finances (FY2023), via the Tax Foundation; per capita, so it scales with household size. Housing — U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates (Tables B25088, B25058, B25103). Energy — U.S. Energy Information Administration, State Energy Data System, Table E10, residential sector energy expenditures by state, 2024 (electricity, natural gas, and petroleum products including fuel oil, propane, and kerosene); converted to per-capita dollars using U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2024 population estimates (as of July 1, 2024), so it scales with household size like the Taxes row. This is total household energy spending, not electricity alone, and is a different figure from the economy-wide “energy expenditures per capita” statistic EIA publicizes, which also includes industrial and transportation energy. Child care — Child Care Aware of America, 2024 Affordability Analysis (center-based care for a 4-year-old; New Mexico from the Economic Policy Institute). Health insurance — AHRQ / U.S. Census Bureau, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey — Insurance Component (MEPS-IC), 2024 private sector; employee contribution only (Tables II.C.2, II.D.2), covering employer-sponsored plans, not Medicare, Medicaid or marketplace coverage, and excluding deductibles and out-of-pocket spending. Coverage tier follows household size (1 = single, 2+ = family). Housing figures here are adjusted downward to remove the property taxes and energy costs (electricity, gas, and heating fuel) counted in the other rows, so each dollar is counted once; they are therefore lower than the figures on the housing page. The gas/heating-fuel portion of that adjustment uses the U.S. average household size (2.51 people) to convert a per-capita figure into a comparable per-household amount — a small, deliberate approximation. Statewide medians and averages — no individual household pays exactly these amounts.
State Child Care Cost Calculator
If I move from to , my annual cost of center-based infant care will change by −$10,303/year (cheaper)
By age (center-based): Infant: $26,343 → $16,040 (−$10,303) 4-year-old: $20,669 → $13,042 (−$7,627)
Massachusetts families pay $10,758 more per year for center-based infant care than the national average ($26,343 vs. $15,585, the average across all states and DC).
Source: Child Care Aware of America, Child Care in America: 2024 Affordability Analysis, Table I (average annual price of full-time center-based care; prices collected in CCAoA’s January 2025 survey of state Child Care Resource & Referral networks). New Mexico is not in that release; its figures are from the Economic Policy Institute’s 2024 child care fact sheets (U.S. Department of Labor / CCAoA data, in 2024 dollars). Figures are average prices for full-time, center-based care and vary by provider, region, and quality; home-based (family child care) is typically lower.
Cross-State Health Care Cost Calculator
Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums
If I move from to and I have coverage, my annual cost will change by −$169/year (cheaper)
What’s in it: Your share, from your paycheck: $2,077 → $1,908 (−$169) Full premium, you + employer: $9,412 → $8,352 (−$1,060)
Massachusetts employees pay $288 more per year out of pocket for single coverage than the U.S. average ($2,077 vs. $1,789). The full premium is $9,412 vs. $8,486.
Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the U.S. Census Bureau, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey — Insurance Component (MEPS-IC), 2024 private-sector establishments; Table Series II (Tables II.C.1, II.C.2, II.D.1, II.D.2). Figures are annual averages per enrolled employee. Scope: this measures employer-sponsored insurance premiums only — the coverage held by roughly half of Americans. It excludes deductibles and out-of-pocket spending, and excludes Medicare, Medicaid and marketplace plans. It is a measure of what insurance costs, not of total health care spending.
Cross-State Housing Cost Calculator
If I move from to and I , my annual housing cost will change by −$4,272/year (cheaper)
What’s in it: Total owner costs, with mortgage: $33,060 → $28,788 (−$4,272) Of which property taxes: $6,080 → $6,707 (+$627)
Massachusetts homeowners pay $8,640 more per year than the U.S. average ($33,060 vs. $24,420).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates (released September 2025). Owner: median selected monthly owner costs for units with a mortgage (Table B25088), which include mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, utilities and condo/HOA fees, but not maintenance or repairs; property taxes from Table B25103. Renter: median gross rent (Table B25064); utilities derived as gross rent minus median contract rent (Table B25058). National medians: $2,035 owner, $1,487 gross rent. Figures are statewide medians and vary widely by region.
State Tax-Burden Calculator
If I move from to , my personal tax burden will change by -$3,292 (a decrease)
Massachusetts residents pay $2,038 more per person than the U.S. average in state & local taxes ($9,076 vs. $7,038, FY2023).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, “Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances”; Tax Foundation calculations. Figures are combined state and local tax collections per capita for fiscal year 2023, the most recent year available. Per-capita collections measure a state’s overall tax burden — they are not an individual tax bill, and do not account for income, property value, or spending.