Miami vs Boston: which should you move to?
Miami or Boston? Housing, rent, crime, climate, income, taxes and transit, side by side, from each city's own published figures. Written for someone deciding where to live, not for a ranking.
Boston's typical home was $791,816 in June 2026 and Miami's $582,621, but the bills attached to ownership close most of that gap: on mortgage, property tax and insurance the Boston owner is at about $4,756 a month and the Miami owner at about $4,404. Miami wins on tax and on winter, with no state income tax, worth about $4,780 a year to a single filer on $100,000, a January averaging 20.3 C against -1.2 C, and reported violent crime of 358.6 per 100,000 in 2025 against 507. Boston wins on what a household earns and on how it gets around: city median household income was $97,791 in 2024 against $66,337, 25.3% of workers commuted on the MBTA against 7.7% on Miami-Dade Transit, and Massachusetts had the lowest uninsured rate in the country at 2.8%. Choose Miami if the winter and the tax bill decide it and you will pay to insure against hurricanes. Choose Boston if you want the higher salary and the train, and can carry the payment.
| Measure | Miami | Boston | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 489,812 (2025) | 672,973 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 6,391,072 (2025) | 5,034,221 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Five-year growth Growth is pressure on rents and roads as much as it is opportunity, so it is reported without a winner. | 10.8% (2020-2025) | -0.8% (2020-2025) | Not directly comparable |
What a home costs in each
The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.
| Measure | Miami | Boston | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark home price MLS® HPI or equivalent benchmark. Lower is treated as the advantage, which is the buyer's view rather than the owner's. | $582,621 (June 2026) | $791,816 (June 2026) | Miami |
| Detached house benchmark Miami publishes a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat. | $582,621 | $858,328 | Miami |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | Not published | $739,553 | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent | $3,004/mo (median, June 2026) | $3,425/mo (median, June 2026) | Miami |
| One-bedroom rent | $2,583/mo | $2,877/mo | Miami |
| Two-bedroom rent against median income A year of two-bedroom rent as a share of the median household income below. A household paying the median rent out of the median income is a fiction, but it is the same fiction in both columns and it crosses currencies. | 54.3% of a year's income | 42.0% of a year's income | Boston |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 30-year amortization on American monthly compounding, the convention in both. | $2,998/mo at 6.67% | $4,071/mo at 6.66% | Miami |
| Price to household income Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not. | 8.8× | 8.1× | Boston |
| Property tax on the benchmark home The effective rate on market value, which is what the two rates have in common and what the Advantage column is decided on; the bills are in each city's own dollars. | $10,808/yr (1.855%, 2025) | $5,465/yr (0.690%, 2026) | Boston |
| Transfer tax on the benchmark home Compared as a share of the price. Where the seller pays it, it is a cost of leaving rather than arriving. | $3,496 (seller pays) | $3,611 (seller pays) | Boston |
| Rent control A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better. | Forbidden by state law | Forbidden by state law | Not directly comparable |
Miami: About 1.86% of what you pay for the house, which is lower than the 19.9878 mills charged here, and the difference is Florida's homestead exemption rather than any assessment lag. The state assesses at full market value and a purchase resets the assessment to the price. What there is instead is an exemption: $25,000 of taxable value comes off for every taxing authority and a second slice comes off for all of them except the school district, which levies 6.4990 of the 19.9878. That second slice was $25,000 through the 2024 tax roll and has been adjusted for inflation every 1 January since, under the 2024 amendment to Article VII section 6 of the state constitution, so it is now somewhat more than $25,000. The figures here use the base amount, because the Department of Revenue sends the adjusted figure to the county property appraisers rather than publishing it. The difference is worth a few dollars a year on a bill, and the county property appraiser can tell you the amount in force. A homesteaded buyer's first-year bill is therefore about $10,808 on the $582,621 typical home value here. Miami runs its own fire department, so it pays none of the county's 2.3965-mill Fire Rescue district levy. One of only five municipalities in Miami-Dade in that position, and worth more than most municipal rates on this table. The exemption is not automatic: you file for it with the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy. The seller's tax bill is not a guide to yours. Save Our Homes caps a homesteaded property's assessed value at 3% growth a year, and that cap resets to full market value the January after the sale, so a long-tenured owner can be taxed on a fraction of what you will be taxed on for the same house. Ask the property appraiser what the assessment would be at your purchase price, not what the current bill is. Boston: About 0.69% of what you pay for the house. Boston charges business $27 per $1,000 against the $12 it charges you, a shift of 2.17 to one. That is why the residential rate is what it is: under MGL c.40 s.56 a municipality may move part of the levy onto commercial property, so a low published rate is evidence of a commercial tax base rather than of a cheap town. Boston is one of nine municipalities in this layer that grants a residential exemption under MGL c.59 s.5C, and it takes $351,108 of assessed value off an owner-occupied parcel. That is a flat dollar slab rather than a percentage of your house, so it is worth the same on a cheap home as on an expensive one and worth far more as a share of the bill at the bottom of the market. On the $791,816 typical home value here it produces a bill of about $5,465 a year against the $9,819 somebody who does not live in the building pays on the same house. It is not automatic: you file with the assessors, the deadline is 1 April, and you must have owned and occupied the property on the previous 1 January. Massachusetts assesses at full and fair cash value and re-sets the whole class every year, with the Department of Revenue certifying the roll every five years and reviewing the interim adjustments in between. There is no assessment freeze as in Ontario and North Carolina and no purchase reset or growth cap as in Florida, which means the useful thing a Massachusetts buyer can do that a Florida buyer cannot: the seller's current tax bill is a fair guide to what you will pay. The only lag is the lien date. Fiscal 2026 bills are charged against values as of 1 January 2025.
How safe each city is, by the numbers it publishes
Police-reported figures for the most recent year each force or statistics agency has released. Rates describe a whole city or metro area, and the spread between neighbourhoods inside one city is usually wider than the gap between the two cities.
| Measure | Miami | Boston | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Severity Index Statistics Canada's weighted index for the metropolitan area, where 100 is Canada in 2006. American cities have no equivalent series. | Not published | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Violent crime per 100,000 | 359 (2025) | 507 (2025) | Miami |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 2,241 (2025) | 1,950 (2025) | Boston |
| Homicides Counts, not rates, and a single year in a small city moves a long way on chance alone. What each figure covers is under the table. | 26 (2025) | 31 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
FBI CDE counts for Miami PD show violent offenses falling from 2,245 in 2023 to 2,225 in 2024 and 1,787 in 2025 (a 20 percent one-year drop), property offenses from 13,928 to 11,178, and homicides from 61 in 2020 to 26 in 2025. Mid-2025 the department reported robberies down 17 percent and auto thefts down 37 percent against the first half of 2024.
What the rates cover: Miami Police Department (ORI FL0130600), FBI Crime Data Explorer NIBRS summarized data, 1,787 violent offenses in calendar 2025 against a CDE agency population of 498,792. 2024: 2,225 offenses, 483.1 per 100k. Miami PD moved to NIBRS mid 2022, so 2021 is blank and 2022 is a partial year in the CDE.
Homicides: Miami PD, FBI CDE: 26 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025, 5.2 per 100k. 2024: 29 (6.4 per 100k), 2023: 32 (7.1), 2020: 61 (12.8). Miami PD said in July 2025 the city might beat its record low of 24 set in 1946.
Violent Part One offences fell from 3,636 in 2023 to 3,615 in 2024 and 3,409 in 2025 on BPD's own year-end counts, and property offences went 12,777, then 13,354, then 13,120, so the three-year direction is down on both. Homicides moved the other way and are the number people argue about: 36 in 2023, then 24 in 2024, a low the city had not seen in decades, then 31 in 2025. Even at 31 the count sits below the 38.2 five-year average, and BPD reports shootings still more than 30% under that average. All of these are preliminary until UCR coding is complete, and BPD's violent crime definition runs below the FBI's, which recorded 4,138 violent offences in Boston in 2024 against BPD's 3,615.
What the rates cover: Computed: Boston Police Department counted 3,409 Part One violent offences between 1 January and 28 December 2025 (31 homicides, 150 rapes, 760 robberies, 914 domestic aggravated assaults, 1,554 non-domestic aggravated assaults), divided by the 672,973 Vintage 2025 city population. The FBI's 2024 file for Boston gives a higher figure, 4,138 violent offences and 628 per 100k, almost all of the gap in aggravated assault; BPD's counts are its own and are preliminary until UCR coding is complete.
Homicides: City of Boston, 31 homicides in the 1 January to 28 December 2025 count, up from 24 in 2024 and down from 36 in 2023. Three of the 31 were deaths from earlier years ruled homicides in 2025. That is about 4.6 per 100,000. Commissioner Michael Cox put the 2025 total 16% below the five-year average of 38.2, and 19 of the 31 victims were shot.
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Miami | Boston | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | 20.3 °C | -1.2 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 28.9 °C | 23.4 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 1,712 mm | 1,107 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 0 cm | 125 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 3,154 hours | 2,634 hours | Miami |
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals at Miami International Airport (USW00012839): January mean 68.6 F, July 84.1 F (August is warmest at 84.2 F), annual mean 77.4 F, annual precipitation 67.41 in, snow 0. Sunshine about 3,154 hours a year comes from NOAA Comparative Climatic Data (older period), not the 1991-2020 normals. Hazards: hurricanes and storm surge, seasonal king tide and rainfall flooding, heat and humidity from May to October, frequent thunderstorms (roughly 80 thunder days a year).
Hazards: Hurricanes and storm surge every June to November, with chronic tidal and rain flooding; windstorm and separate NFIP or private flood cover are a real carrying cost and coastal home premiums commonly run $4,000 to $7,000 a year or more.
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International Airport (USW00014739): January mean 29.9 F, July mean 74.1 F and the warmest month, annual precipitation 43.59 in spread almost evenly across the twelve months, annual snowfall normal 49.2 in. Converted here to -1.2 C, 23.4 C, 1,107 mm and 125 cm. Sunshine is not in the 1991-2020 normals product; the 2,634 hours shown is the older 1961-1990 NCDC mean, 58% of possible, the same series used for Charlotte on this site.
Hazards: Nor'easters are the hazard that defines the coast here. The bomb cyclone of 4 January 2018 pushed the Boston tide gauge to 15.16 ft, beating the 15.1 ft of the Blizzard of 1978 in records kept since 1921, floated ice down Atlantic Avenue, flooded 75 homes in Winthrop and put water into the Aquarium subway station; a second nor'easter did much the same two months later. Climate Ready Boston plans against roughly 9 inches of sea level rise by 2030, 21 inches by 2050 and 36 to 40 inches (91 to 102 cm) by 2070, and the city's coastal resilience plans for Charlestown, the downtown waterfront and North End, East Boston, South Boston and Dorchester are all designed for a 1% annual chance storm at 2070 sea levels across 47 miles of shoreline. In East Boston alone the near-term works are costed to protect 10,800 residents and 250 businesses and to avoid about $620 million in losses. Away from the water the hazards are ordinary and expensive: a 49 inch snow normal, ice, and summer heat waves that are short but severe.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Miami | Boston | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $66,337 USD (2024) | $97,791 USD (2024) | Boston |
| Unemployment rate | 3.0% (June 2026) | 4.3% (July 2026) | Miami |
| Sales tax | 7% | 6.25% | Boston |
| Top marginal income tax Federal plus provincial or state. The American figure leaves out payroll taxes and the cost of health insurance, both of which a Canadian household covers through the tax it pays here. | 37% | 46% | Miami |
| Income tax on $100,000, single filer Computed from each jurisdiction's brackets at a single filer's $100,000 and rounded to the dollar, so a gap of a dollar is rounding rather than tax. Two cities in one province or state are shown as Even, because there the two cells describe the same tax and whatever separates them is method. | $13,449 USD | $18,229 USD | Miami |
Nonfarm employment in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall metropolitan division was 1,351,000 in June 2026, up 8,800 (0.7 percent) over the year, led by education and health services (+6,100) and professional and business services (+4,800); Broward shed 5,000 jobs over the same period. MIA handled nearly 3.5 million tons of cargo in 2025, the most of any US airport.
Main sectors: Trade, transportation and logistics (port and airport), Tourism and hospitality, Finance and professional services, Health care and education, Real estate and construction.
No state or local income tax. Property tax and insurance are the taxes and costs that bite in Miami: homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes 3 percent assessment cap favour long-time owners over new buyers.
BLS counted 2,747,200 nonfarm jobs in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton MSA in July 2026, up 0.3% on the 2,739,800 of July 2025, so the metro job market is flat rather than growing. Inside the city the largest industries by employment in 2024 were health care and social assistance (68,674), professional, scientific and technical services (59,267) and educational services (50,798), and the best-paid were management of companies ($120,536 median), finance and insurance ($111,396) and professional and technical services ($104,866). Hospitals and universities are not a sideline here, they are the base of the economy, which makes the city unusually exposed to federal research funding and to international student flows. bls.gov answered 403 to the fetcher, so the employment counts come through FRED and the industry mix through Data USA, both of which restate Census and BLS series.
Main sectors: Health care and social assistance (Mass General Brigham, Beth Israel Lahey, Boston Children's), Higher education and research, Professional, scientific and technical services, Finance and insurance, especially asset management and custody banking, Life sciences and biotech, in the Longwood Medical Area and along the Charles.
Property tax is the local levy that matters. Boston's certified fiscal 2026 residential rate is $12.40 per $1,000 of full and fair cash value, and an owner who is domiciled in the home gets a residential exemption of $351,108 off the assessed value, worth $4,353.74 a year at that rate; it is not automatic on purchase and has to be filed for by 1 April. Proposition 2 1/2 caps the levy a municipality may raise rather than the rate, so a rate can fall in a year when every bill rises. Massachusetts reassesses the whole residential class at full value every year, with no cap, no freeze and no reset on sale, which means the seller's current bill is a fair guide to what a buyer will pay. Nothing is charged to take title or to borrow: no buyer transfer tax and no mortgage recording tax, only the deeds excise at $4.56 per $1,000, which MGL c.64D s.1 puts on the seller. Massachusetts does levy an estate tax, unusual among the states on this site: estates over $2 million file, and since the 2023 change a credit of up to $99,600 means only the value above $2 million is taxed, at 0.8% to 16%.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Miami | Boston | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | Miami-Dade Transit (Metrorail, Metromover, Metrobus); Brightline and Tri-Rail regional rail | The MBTA: three heavy rail subway lines (Red, Orange, Blue), the Green Line light rail and the Mattapan trolley, about 150 bus routes, 12 commuter rail lines over 394 miles of track, and 8 ferry routes | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 7.7% (2024) | 25.3% (2024) | Boston |
| Walk or cycle to work | 5.7% (2024) | 17.4% (2024) | Boston |
| Airport | Miami International Airport, MIA, 55.3 million passengers in 2025 (about 1 percent below 2024's record 55.9 million), per Miami-Dade Aviation Department release of May 4 2026 | Logan International Airport (BOS), 43.2 million passengers in calendar 2025 per Massport's 2025 Year in Review, including a record 10 million international passengers, up 3.8% on 2024. It sits in East Boston, about three miles from downtown across the harbor. | Not directly comparable |
Miami-Dade Transit carried 80,797,500 unlinked trips in 2025 (APTA ridership report, as cited on Wikipedia): Metrorail 14,971,300, Metromover 7,683,800, the rest on Metrobus. Q4 2025 weekday averages: Metrorail 50,300, Metromover 25,600, system 259,400.
The MBTA carried 270,715,800 unlinked trips in 2025 (APTA ridership report, as cited by Wikipedia; the APTA PDF itself refused the fetcher). Average weekday ridership in the first quarter of 2026 was 851,600, of which about 326,500 on the Red, Orange and Blue lines, 124,900 on the Green Line and Mattapan trolley and 104,000 on commuter rail. Commuter rail alone passed 29 million trips in 2025 by the MBTA and Keolis year-in-review report.
Health care, schools and what each city is like
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, and Florida has not expanded Medicaid, so the uninsured share runs above the national rate and emergency rooms carry the gap. Jackson Memorial, the public safety-net hospital with more than 1,500 licensed beds, is the teaching hospital of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; Baptist Health South Florida, Mount Sinai Medical Center and the Miami VA are the other large systems.
Education
Miami-Dade County Public Schools is the third largest district in the country but enrolled 313,220 students in 2025-26, down about 13,000 in a year as charters and vouchers grew, and the board approved school closures and consolidations in 2026. Florida International University enrolls roughly 50,000 students and the private University of Miami about 20,000; magnet programs such as Design and Architecture Senior High and the choice-heavy system mean school assignment is something families actively manage.
Living there
The city proper is dense, young and majority Hispanic, with Spanish as common as English in daily business, and it has grown almost 11 percent since 2020 on finance and tech arrivals who pushed rents and condo prices up fast. Summers are long, wet and hot, winters are the reason people stay, and every household budgets for hurricane season, windstorm insurance and flooded streets at king tide. Driving is the default outside the Metrorail and Metromover corridors, and traffic is the complaint residents raise most.
Health care
Massachusetts has the lowest uninsured rate in the country, 2.8% in 2024 against 8.2% nationally, which is the legacy of its own 2006 coverage law and of MassHealth, the Medicaid program, expanded under the ACA. Care is still paid for through employer plans, ConnectorCare and marketplace plans, Medicare and MassHealth, and what a household pays out of pocket depends entirely on the plan. The teaching hospitals are the draw. Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's were both named to the U.S. News 2026-2027 Best Hospitals honor roll, the top 20 in the country, with Mass General first nationally in psychiatry and McLean second, Brigham and Dana-Farber third in cancer, Brigham second in obstetrics and gynecology and eighth in neuroscience, and Mass General sixth in heart and vascular care. Beth Israel Deaconess, Tufts Medical Center, Boston Children's and the rest of the Longwood Medical Area cluster fill in the rest. Density of hospitals is not the same as an appointment: this file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
Boston Public Schools enrolled 44,416 students in 2025-26 on the state's count, down 1,678 or 3.6% from 46,094 the year before, which itself was up from 45,742 in 2023-24. Address does not settle where a child goes. Assignment runs through a choice application, and the three exam schools, Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy and the John D. O'Bryant School, admit on a composite score that is 70% grade point average and 30% the MAP Growth test, with applicants competing only inside one of four socioeconomic tiers drawn from where they live. The School Committee voted 4 to 2 in November 2025 to set aside 20% of seats for the highest scorers citywide regardless of tier, and to drop the bonus points for students at high-poverty schools; the district's own simulation put Black students' share of invitations falling from 20% to 15% and white students' rising from 27% to 33%. Higher education is the city's other anchor and a large part of its economy: Boston University counted 37,737 students in fall 2024, Northeastern is the other large private university inside the city, and Harvard and MIT are across the Charles in Cambridge.
Living there
Boston is small, old and dense in a way no other city on this site is. The median home was built in 1947, 64% of occupied homes are rented, and a quarter of workers get to work on the MBTA, against about one in a hundred in Tampa. That buys a life much of the city can live without a car, and it costs the most money of the American cities here: Zillow's typical value for June 2026 is $791,816. Winter is the part people underestimate, a 49 inch snow normal and a January mean below freezing, and the housing stock that gives the city its look is the housing stock that has to be heated. The open question is on the waterfront. The Seaport was built out over the last twenty-five years on filled land at the harbor's edge, the January 2018 tide showed what a nor'easter can do at high water, and the city now designs its coastal defenses to 2070 sea levels.
Where each city wins, and where it loses
Boston's typical home value was $791,816 in June 2026, down 1.3% over the year, against Miami's $582,621, down 0.7%, both in US dollars. Boston splits to $858,328 for a single family and $739,553 for a condominium; Miami is published as one all-homes index. With 20% down the Boston loan is $633,453 at 6.66% over 30 years, $4,071 a month, against Miami's $2,998 at 6.67%. Then the two states swap places. A homesteaded Miami buyer's first-year property tax is about $10,808, 1.86% of the price, while a Boston owner-occupier who files the residential exemption pays about $5,465, 0.69%, and an owner who does not live there pays about $9,819. Insurance is $505 a month in Miami against $230 in Boston, and neither figure includes flood. On those three lines the Miami owner is at about $4,404 a month ($2,998 mortgage, $901 tax, $505 insurance) and the Boston owner at about $4,756 ($4,071, $455, $230). Miami's tax and insurance together run about $16,868 a year against about $8,225, which hands back most of the $1,073 monthly mortgage saving. Condominium fees average $850 against $625. Rents favour Miami by a few hundred dollars: median one-bedrooms of $2,583 against $2,877, two-bedrooms of $3,004 against $3,425, three-bedrooms of $3,725 against $4,110 in June 2026. Neither state permits rent control, Florida since it closed its last exception in 2023 and Massachusetts under MGL c.40P since 1 January 1995.
Miami's reported violent crime is lower and its property crime higher, and the two counts come from different systems. Miami Police submitted 1,787 violent offences to the FBI's Crime Data Explorer for 2025, 358.6 per 100,000 on an agency population of 498,792, down from 483.1 in 2024, and 11,178 property offences, 2,240.8 per 100,000, down from 3,025.2. Boston Police recorded 3,409 Part One violent offences between 1 January and 28 December 2025, about 507 per 100,000 on 672,973 residents, and 13,120 property offences, about 1,950. Homicide runs the other way from violent crime: 26 in Miami, 5.2 per 100,000 and down from 61 in 2020, against 31 in Boston, about 4.6 per 100,000 and up from 24 in 2024, though still below the five-year average of 38.2. Neither city has a composite severity index. Boston's rates here are our own division of department counts by a Census estimate rather than published rates, they are preliminary until UCR coding is complete, and the FBI's 2024 file gives Boston 4,138 violent offences where the department counted 3,615, almost all of the gap in aggravated assault. Miami's denominator is the FBI's, not the Census city estimate of 489,812.
Miami International averages 20.3 C in January and 28.9 C in July on the 1991-2020 normals, with August warmer still, 1,712 mm of rain, no snow and roughly 80 thunder days a year. Boston Logan averages -1.2 C and 23.4 C, with 1,107 mm spread almost evenly across the twelve months and a 125 cm snow normal. Sunshine will not compare: Miami's 3,154 hours and Boston's 2,634 both come from the older Comparative Climatic Data series rather than the current normals. Both cities are planning against the same sea, from different storms. Miami's hazard is the hurricane and its surge from June to November, with king tide and rainfall flooding as a recurring nuisance, which is why coastal windstorm and flood cover commonly runs $4,000 to $7,000 a year on top of the $505 monthly premium. Boston's is the nor'easter at high water. The bomb cyclone of 4 January 2018 pushed the Boston tide gauge to 15.16 ft, past the 15.1 ft of the 1978 blizzard in records kept since 1921, flooded 75 homes in Winthrop and put water into the Aquarium subway station. Climate Ready Boston plans against about 9 inches of sea level rise by 2030, 21 by 2050 and 36 to 40 by 2070, and designs 47 miles of shoreline for a 1% annual chance storm at 2070 levels; in East Boston alone the near-term works are costed to avoid about $620 million in losses.
Boston earns much more and keeps less of it. City median household income was $97,791 in 2024 against Miami's $66,337, and the metro figures are $117,825 against $80,625. Unemployment was 3.0% in Miami-Dade County in June 2026 and 4.3% in the Boston metro in July 2026, so the tighter job market is Miami's, and the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall metropolitan division added 8,800 jobs over the year, 0.7%, against 0.3% growth on Boston's 2,747,200. What the two economies are made of differs more than the totals. Boston's largest city industries in 2024 were health care at 68,674 jobs, professional and technical services at 59,267 and education at 50,798, which leaves the city exposed to federal research funding and to international student numbers. Miami's 1,351,000 jobs lean on the port, the airport, tourism, health care and finance, and MIA moved nearly 3.5 million tons of cargo in 2025, more than any other US airport. Tax is the clearest split. A single filer on $100,000 pays about $13,449 in Miami, all of it federal, and $18,229 in Boston, where Massachusetts charges a flat 5% above a $4,400 personal exemption and allows no standard deduction. Sales tax is 7% in Miami-Dade against 6.25% statewide in Massachusetts, which exempts groceries, prescriptions and most clothing under $175. Massachusetts also taxes estates over $2 million and adds a 4% surtax above $1,107,750 of taxable income in 2026; Florida does neither. Property tax pulls the other way, by about $5,300 a year on these two homes.
Boston is one of the few cities on this site where a household can plainly live without a car, and Miami is the one Florida city where it is arguable. A quarter of Boston's workers, 25.3% in 2024, commute on the MBTA: 54,816 by subway, 33,703 by bus, 4,039 on commuter rail and 916 by ferry, out of 378,248. Another 17.4% walk or cycle and only 31.3% drive alone, on a mean commute of 31.7 minutes. The MBTA runs three heavy rail lines, the Green Line, about 150 bus routes, 12 commuter rail lines over 394 miles of track and 8 ferry routes, and carried 270,715,800 trips in 2025. Miami's city transit share was 7.7% in 2024, 20,372 of 265,512 workers, with 5.7% walking or cycling, and Miami-Dade Transit carried 80,797,500 trips in 2025, of which 14,971,300 on Metrorail and 7,683,800 on the fare-free Metromover. The metro share is 2.6%, which is the honest number: outside the Metrorail and Metromover corridors Miami is a driving city, and residents name traffic as their chief complaint. Brightline and Tri-Rail add regional rail. On airports Miami is ahead, 55.3 million passengers at MIA in 2025 against 43.2 million at Logan, though Logan handled a record 10 million international passengers and sits three miles from downtown across the harbor.
Massachusetts has the lowest uninsured rate in the country, 2.8% in 2024 against 8.2% nationally, from its own 2006 coverage law and MassHealth; Florida has not expanded Medicaid, so the uninsured share in Miami runs above the national rate and emergency rooms carry the gap. Mass General and Brigham and Women's are both on the U.S. News 2026-2027 honor roll, with Mass General first nationally in psychiatry. Miami's anchor is Jackson Memorial, the public safety-net hospital with more than 1,500 licensed beds and the teaching hospital of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, alongside Baptist Health, Mount Sinai and the Miami VA. Neither profile verified a wait time for an appointment. Schools work by application in both. Boston Public Schools enrolled 44,416 in 2025-26, down 3.6%, and the exam schools admit on 70% grade point average and 30% the MAP Growth test inside four socioeconomic tiers, which the School Committee voted in November 2025 to cut across by awarding 20% of seats citywide. Miami-Dade enrolled 313,220, down about 13,000 in a year as charters and vouchers grew, and the board approved closures in 2026. The cities feel nothing alike. Boston's median home was built in 1947, 64% of occupied homes are rented, and its 672,973 residents are 0.8% fewer than in 2020, the only city here that has shrunk. Miami is dense, young and majority Hispanic, with Spanish as common as English in daily business, and has grown 10.8% since 2020 to 489,812.
The underestimated item is the condominium, because much of what trades in both cities is one and the two states regulate them in opposite directions. Florida rewrote the rules after Surfside: a condominium or cooperative building of three habitable stories or more owes a milestone inspection at 30 years and every 10 years after under Fla. Stat. 553.899, and a structural integrity reserve study at least every 10 years under Fla. Stat. 718.112, and for budgets adopted on or after 31 December 2024 an association may no longer vote to fund the identified reserve items at nothing. The City of Miami keeps its own 40 year recertification list on top of that, and the backlog is real: in Edgewater alone it holds 212 buildings with a median construction year of 1938, 45 of them still pending. A low asking price on an older building is often an assessment that has not been voted yet. Massachusetts has no reserve statute of any kind, so a Boston fee near the bottom of the $300 to over $1,000 range can be low because nothing is being funded, and the reserve study, the master insurance certificate and three years of minutes are the only way to find out. The closing differs as well. Massachusetts charges a buyer no transfer tax and no mortgage recording or intangible tax, puts the deeds excise of $4.56 per $1,000 on the seller, and requires a lawyer to conduct the closing. A Florida buyer pays documentary stamp tax on the note at 0.35% and a non-recurring intangible tax at 0.2%, both charged on the loan, so both grow the less you put down.
Better here
- The typical home was $582,621 in June 2026 against Boston's $791,816, and the mortgage with 20% down is $2,998 a month against $4,071.
- Florida charges no state income tax and no estate tax: a single filer on $100,000 pays about $13,449 against $18,229 in Boston, which also taxes estates over $2 million.
- January averages 20.3 C with no snow, against -1.2 C on a 125 cm normal, and the owner's utility premium is $160 a month against $210.
- Reported violent crime was 358.6 per 100,000 in 2025 against Boston's 507, and violent offences fell 20% in a single year.
- Miami-Dade unemployment was 3.0% in June 2026 against 4.3% in the Boston metro, and the metro division added 8,800 jobs over the year against 0.3% growth in Boston.
- MIA handled 55.3 million passengers in 2025 against Logan's 43.2 million, and moved nearly 3.5 million tons of cargo, the most of any US airport.
Worse here
- First-year property tax on the typical home is about $10,808, 1.86% of the price, against about $5,465 for a Boston owner-occupier who files the residential exemption, 0.69%.
- Insurance is $505 a month against $230 and excludes flood; coastal windstorm and flood cover commonly runs $4,000 to $7,000 a year.
- City median household income was $66,337 in 2024 against Boston's $97,791, and the metro's $80,625 against $117,825.
- 7.7% of city workers commuted by transit in 2024 against 25.3% in Boston, and the metro share is 2.6%, so outside the Metrorail and Metromover corridors a car is assumed.
- Florida has not expanded Medicaid, while Massachusetts had the country's lowest uninsured rate at 2.8% in 2024.
- Property crime ran 2,240.8 per 100,000 in 2025 against Boston's 1,950, homicides were 5.2 per 100,000 against 4.6, and condominium fees average $850 a month against $625.
Choose Miami if
- you want a January at 20.3 C and will pay windstorm and flood premiums to get it
- no state income tax and no estate tax matter more to you than a train to work
- your work is tied to Latin American trade, the port or the airport
- you speak Spanish at home or want your children to grow up using it daily
- you are buying a condominium whose milestone inspection, reserve study and assessments are already settled
The Miami guide · Neighborhoods · Miami rent vs buy · Miami mortgage calculator
Better here
- City median household income was $97,791 in 2024 against Miami's $66,337, and the metro's was $117,825 against $80,625.
- 25.3% of workers commuted on the MBTA in 2024 and only 31.3% drove alone, against a 7.7% transit share in Miami, and the MBTA carried 270,715,800 trips in 2025 against 80,797,500.
- Property tax on the benchmark is about $5,465 a year for an owner-occupier who files the residential exemption, and insurance is $230 a month against Miami's $505.
- Massachusetts had the country's lowest uninsured rate in 2024 at 2.8%, and Mass General and Brigham and Women's are both on the U.S. News 2026-2027 honor roll.
- July averages 23.4 C against Miami's 28.9 C, and there is no hurricane season, no storm surge and no king tide.
- Assessment is at full and fair cash value every year with no cap and no reset on sale, so the seller's bill is a fair guide to yours.
Worse here
- The typical home cost $791,816 in June 2026 against $582,621, and mortgage, tax and insurance come to about $4,756 a month against $4,404.
- Massachusetts income tax costs a single filer on $100,000 about $4,780 a year that Florida does not charge, and a 4% surtax applies above $1,107,750 of taxable income in 2026.
- Reported violent crime was about 507 per 100,000 in 2025 against Miami's 358.6, and the FBI counted 4,138 violent offences in 2024 where the department counted 3,615.
- January averages -1.2 C on a 125 cm snow normal, and the owner pays $210 a month more in utilities than a renter, the highest figure on this site.
- A median two-bedroom rents for $3,425 against $3,004 and a one-bedroom for $2,877 against $2,583.
- Metro employment grew 0.3% in the year to July 2026 and the city's population is 0.8% below its 2020 level, while Miami's has grown 10.8%.
Choose Boston if
- you would actually use the subway, the bus or commuter rail and want to sell a car
- you work in hospitals, universities, life sciences or asset management
- health coverage matters more to you than the marginal tax rate
- you would rather heat a house for six months than insure one against a hurricane
- you want an annual full-value assessment rather than a bill that resets the January after you buy
The Boston guide · Neighborhoods · Boston rent vs buy · Boston mortgage calculator
Miami or Boston, in short
Is Miami or Boston cheaper to live in?
Miami, but by less than the price gap suggests. The typical home was $582,621 in Miami and $791,816 in Boston in June 2026, giving mortgages of $2,998 and $4,071 a month at 20% down. Miami gives most of that back in carrying costs: about $10,808 a year in property tax against about $5,465 for a Boston owner who files the residential exemption, and $505 a month of insurance against $230. On the three lines together the Miami owner is at about $4,404 and the Boston owner at about $4,756. Rents favour Miami by a few hundred dollars, $3,004 against $3,425 for a median two-bedroom. The larger saving is income tax: about $4,780 a year on $100,000, which Florida does not charge.
Is Miami or Boston safer?
It depends which offence you mean. Miami reported 1,787 violent offences to the FBI for 2025, 358.6 per 100,000, against Boston's 3,409 Part One violent offences, about 507 per 100,000. Boston is the safer of the two on homicide and on property crime: 31 homicides, about 4.6 per 100,000, against Miami's 26 on a smaller population, 5.2 per 100,000, and about 1,950 property offences per 100,000 against 2,240.8. Both directions are down, Miami's violent count by 20% in a year and Boston's on the three-year trend. None of the Boston rates are published: they are department counts divided by a Census estimate, preliminary until UCR coding is complete, and the FBI's own 2024 file for Boston is a fifth higher than the department's.
Which has the better climate, Miami or Boston?
Miami if you mind winter, Boston if you mind summer. Miami averages 20.3 C in January and 28.9 C in July with 1,712 mm of rain, no snow and about 80 thunder days a year; Boston averages -1.2 C and 23.4 C with 1,107 mm and a 125 cm snow normal. Sunshine cannot be compared properly, since both figures, 3,154 hours and 2,634, come from the older Comparative Climatic Data series rather than the current normals. The hazards separate them further than the temperatures do: hurricanes, storm surge and king tide flooding from June to November in Miami, against nor'easters at high water in Boston, which is what put the tide gauge to a record 15.16 ft in January 2018.
What should I check before buying a condominium in Miami or Boston?
Different documents, for opposite reasons. In Miami, Florida requires a milestone inspection of any building of three habitable stories or more at 30 years and every 10 years after, and a structural integrity reserve study at least every 10 years, and since budgets adopted on or after 31 December 2024 an association can no longer fund the identified items at nothing. Ask for the inspection date, the study and any assessment voted or pending; the City of Miami also keeps a 40 year recertification list, which in Edgewater alone holds 212 buildings with a median construction year of 1938. In Boston, Massachusetts has no reserve statute at all, so the fee tells you nothing on its own: a figure near the bottom of the $300 to over $1,000 range may mean nothing is being funded. Ask for the reserve study, the master insurance certificate and three years of minutes. The Miami-Dade deed tax also treats the two differently, 1.05% on a condominium against 0.6% on a single-family house, which is the seller's by convention but priced into the offer.
Where the figures come from
Housing figures are the ones behind each city's calculators, dated on those pages. The rest are listed here with the date they were retrieved. See the methodology for how facts, estimates and opinion are kept apart.
- Miami, FL Population (2025) · Every City in the USA (republishing Census Bureau PEP Vintage 2025) · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth
- U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Miami city, Florida · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: population.city (page returned 403 on fetch; figure confirmed via search snippet and secondary republisher)
- Largest U.S. Metro Areas by Population 2026 (Vintage 2025 estimates) · statranker.org · retrieved Supports: Metro population
- Florida MSA population estimates, April 1 2025 · Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research · retrieved Supports: population.metro (alternative state estimate)
- Miami, FL Metro Area and Miami city profiles, ACS 2024 1-year · Census Reporter · retrieved Supports: Median household income, population.metro (ACS)
- ACS 2024 1-year table B08301 Means of Transportation to Work · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau data) · retrieved Supports: Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Miami Police Department (FL0130600) · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- Miami Police Report 20% Decrease in Homicides for 1st Half of 2025 · Officer.com · retrieved Supports: Crime trend, Homicides
- U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly and annual, station USW00012839 Miami International Airport · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall
- Comparative Climatic Data · NOAA NCEI · retrieved Supports: climate.sunshineHours (approximate; figure taken from search summaries of CCD, not the table itself)
- Climate of Miami · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: climate.hazards (thunderstorm days, hurricane exposure)
- Broward County June 2026 Unemployment Data · CareerSource Broward (FloridaCommerce data) · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate, Labour market
- Discretionary Sales Surtax Information (DR-15DSS) 2026 · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- IRS releases tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2025 · Internal Revenue Service · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, taxes.incomeTaxAt100k (brackets)
- FAQ: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act Tax Changes · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: taxes.incomeTaxAt100k ($15,750 standard deduction)
- Miami-Dade Transit · Wikipedia (citing APTA Ridership Report) · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Soaring cargo growth lifts MIA to #1 in the U.S., #3 in the world · Miami International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers, Labour market
- Miami (MIA) Airport & Passenger Statistics · RoadGenius · retrieved Supports: transit.airport (2024 comparison)
- A Guide to Florida Flood Insurance (2026) · Insurify · retrieved Supports: climate.hazards (insurance costs)
- Enrollment in Miami-Dade schools is lower at the start of this year. Why? · WLRN · retrieved Supports: Education
- FIU enrollment approaches 50,000 as fall semester nears · Miami Today · retrieved Supports: Education
- Jackson Memorial Hospital · Jackson Health System · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Boston, MA Population (2025), citing US Census Bureau PEP Vintage 2025 · Every City in the USA (compiling US Census Bureau) · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth
- Resident Population in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (MSA), BOSPOP · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (US Census Bureau data) · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth
- Boston (2020 census count and land area) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth
- Part One Crime Reported, citywide by offence and district, 1/1/2024 to 12/28/2024 vs 1/1/2025 to 12/28/2025 · Boston Police Department · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- Part One Crime Reported, citywide by offence and district, 1/1/2023 to 12/29/2023 vs 1/1/2024 to 12/29/2024 · Boston Police Department · retrieved Supports: Crime trend
- Crime Stats · Boston Police Department · retrieved Supports: Crime trend
- Boston's yearly homicide rate increases 30%, from 24 killings to 31 · Boston.com · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- Boston leaders tout the city's low crime rate in 2025 · The Boston Globe · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- Boston, MA Crime Rates: Stats & Map (FBI UCR 2024 data, released September 2025) · AreaVibes · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Crime trend
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00014739 Boston Logan International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Climate normals
- Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours
- USA: Storm and High Tide Cause Coastal Flooding in North East · FloodList · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Climate Ready East Boston (case study) · American Society of Landscape Architects · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Coastal Resilience Planning · City of Boston · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Coastal Resilience Implementation · City of Boston · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Boston city and the Boston-Cambridge-Newton MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- Boston, MA profile, ACS 2024 1-year · Census Reporter (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Walk and cycle commute share, Median household income
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B25035 and B25003 for Boston city · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Character
- Unemployment Rate in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (MSA), LAUMT251446000000003 · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS LAUS data) · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- All Employees: Total Nonfarm in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (MSA), SMS25144600000000001 · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS CES data) · retrieved Supports: Labour market
- Boston, MA · Data USA (Census ACS) · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Massachusetts Tax Rates & Rankings (2026) · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Top marginal income tax
- 2025 Tax Brackets · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- What is Massachusetts Income Tax? Rates & Tax Brackets · TaxAct · retrieved Supports: Income tax on $100,000
- Massachusetts Millionaire Surtax 2026, citing Department of Revenue certified thresholds · Morkel Financial · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax
- Don't Call it the 'Millionaires' Tax: Inflation is Raising the Bar on Who Pays Massachusetts' High-earner Levy · Massachusetts High Technology Council · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax
- Massachusetts State Taxes: What You'll Pay in 2026 · AARP · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Top marginal income tax
- Residential exemption · City of Boston Assessing Department · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (citing the APTA ridership report and MBTA figures) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- MBTA Sees Over 29 Million Trips in 2025, citing the MBTA and Keolis TRACKed year-in-review · American-Rails.com · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- 2025 Year in Review · Massport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Explore Uninsured in Massachusetts (US Census Bureau ACS 1-year 2024) · America's Health Rankings, United Health Foundation · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Mass General Brigham Hospitals Named Among Nation's Best by U.S. News & World Report (2026-2027 rankings) · Mass General Brigham · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Enrollment Data (2025-26), Boston (00350000) · Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education · retrieved Supports: Education
- Enrollment Data (2024-25), Boston (00350000) · Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education · retrieved Supports: Education
- Enrollment Data (2023-24), Boston (00350000) · Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education · retrieved Supports: Education
- Exam Schools Admissions FAQs · Boston Public Schools · retrieved Supports: Education
- Boston School Committee approves changes to exam school admissions · WBUR · retrieved Supports: Education
- Common Data Set 2024-2025, section B: Enrollment and Persistence (Fall 2024) · Boston University, Analytical Services & Institutional Research · retrieved Supports: Education
- Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), all homes, mid-tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted: city file, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value for the 35th to 65th percentile of each municipality's market, computed on one method across all twenty-four, The same series and month the Charlotte, Orlando and Palm Beach pages use, so all four American layers can be read against each other, Year-over-year change to June 2026
- Table 1: Comparison of Taxes Levied, county and municipal governments, fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26: Miami-Dade · Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight · retrieved Supports: The adopted 2025-26 millage rate for Miami-Dade County and every municipality in it, The county's own components: countywide 4.5740, Fire/Rescue 2.3965, Library 0.2812 and the Unincorporated Municipal Service Area at 1.9090, Municipal rates from Sunny Isles Beach's 1.7000 to Biscayne Park's 9.3000
- 2025 millage rates and taxing authorities, Miami-Dade County · Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: A published combined rate for unincorporated Miami-Dade of 16.9317 mills, Its components: school district 6.4990, countywide 5.7361, regional water districts 0.3911, Fire Rescue 2.3965 and UMSA 1.9090, which this layer's stack reproduces exactly, Millage code 0100, the City of Miami, at 19.9878 mills for 2025: 7.1080 of city operating levy and 0.2536 of city debt service on the countywide 12.6262, Opa-locka's municipal operating levy of 8.9797, and a 2025 total of 24.0024 for millage code 0800, A city debt service column, which nine of the twenty-four municipalities here carry: Miami 0.2536, Miami Beach 0.2779, North Bay Village 1.1666, Golden Beach 0.6000, Miami Shores 0.1331, North Miami Beach 0.2000, Miami Gardens 0.4331, Doral 0.4810 and Homestead 0.2446, A blank library district column for Hialeah, North Miami, North Miami Beach, Homestead, Miami Shores, Bal Harbour and Surfside, which are outside the county library district, A blank Fire Rescue column for Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah and Key Biscayne, which is the five this layer flags
- About Fire Rescue · Miami-Dade Fire Rescue · retrieved Supports: The Fire Rescue district covering the unincorporated county and twenty-nine municipalities, Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah and Key Biscayne operating their own fire departments and lying outside the district
- Documentary stamp tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A Miami-Dade deed rate of 60 cents per $100 rather than the 70 cents charged in every other county, A Miami-Dade surtax of 45 cents per $100, not due on a document transferring only a single-family dwelling, 35 cents per $100 on a promissory note, statewide
- Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2024 · United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program · retrieved Supports: 2020 census counts and 2024 estimates for each municipality, Miami at 487,014 and Hialeah at 235,388; Golden Beach at 1,034
- Average cost of home insurance in Florida, 2026 · MoneyGeek · retrieved Supports: A Miami-Dade County average of about $6,045 a year: below Palm Beach County's $6,614, A Florida average of about $3,815 and a national average of about $2,543
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.67%
- Governmental leasehold intangible personal property tax and the non-recurring intangible tax on mortgages · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A non-recurring intangible tax of 2 mills: 0.2%, on the obligation secured by a mortgage on Florida real property
- Property tax exemptions and additional benefits · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A $25,000 homestead exemption applying to all taxing authorities and a second slice, $25,000 in the 2024 base year and adjusted for inflation each 1 January since, applying to all but the school district, The Save Our Homes assessment limitation of 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower, Portability of up to $500,000 of accrued Save Our Homes benefit to a new homestead, The 1 March filing deadline
- Chapter 2023-17, Laws of Florida: preemption of rent control · The Florida Senate · retrieved Supports: The repeal of the referendum exception that had allowed a local rent control ordinance in a declared housing emergency
- Tax Rates by Class, fiscal year 2026 · Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services, Municipal Databank · retrieved Supports: The certified fiscal 2026 residential rate for each of the twenty-four municipalities, from Cambridge at $6.67 to Everett at $12.62, The commercial, industrial and personal property rate behind each of them, which gives the classification shift, That Arlington and Belmont charge a single rate to all classes, That fiscal 2026 is the most recent fully certified year: at the retrieval date only two of the state's 352 municipalities had a fiscal 2027 rate on the table
- City of Somerville FY2026 Classification Hearing, 25 November 2025, and the FY2026 Property Tax Update · Somerville Board of Assessors · retrieved Supports: A residential exemption of 35% of average assessed value adopted for fiscal 2026, yielding savings of up to $4,578, A minimum residential factor of 82.816, the legal minimum for the city, Form LA-4 parcel counts and assessed values by use code, from which the average Class One value of about $1,191,000 follows, That Somerville carries 7,251 condominium parcels against 2,315 single-family parcels, That life science property in this market depreciated about 20% between fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026
- City Council meeting minutes, 28 October 2025: adoption of a residential exemption and minimum residential factor for fiscal 2026 · City of Malden · retrieved Supports: A unanimous vote to adopt a residential factor of 0.9054 and a residential exemption of 35%, raised from 30%, The council's own statement on the record that the increase is a tax shift benefiting owner-occupied households and not a tax cut, and that the shift is budget neutral, Average fiscal 2026 values of $449,000 for a condominium, $666,000 for a single family, $861,000 for a two-family and $991,000 for a three-family, That the increase from 30% to 35% is worth about $291 a year, from which the $178,684 exemption value here is derived, A Proposition 2 1/2 override under discussion for fiscal 2027 at $5.4 million and $8.2 million
- Residential exemption information for fiscal year 2026 · City of Chelsea Board of Assessors · retrieved Supports: An exemption of 35% of the average assessed value of all Class One residential parcels, $279,066 of assessed value excluded for fiscal 2026, worth $3,203.68 at the city's $11.48 rate, The 1 April 2026 filing deadline and the 1 January ownership and occupancy test
- Residential exemption information, fiscal year 2026 · City known as the Town of Watertown, Assessing Department · retrieved Supports: The maximum 35% exemption recommended by the assessors and adopted by the council for fiscal 2026, $324,715 of assessed value excluded, worth $3,961.52 at the town's $12.20 rate
- Residential exemptions · Town of Brookline Assessors · retrieved Supports: $354,974 deducted from a qualified owner-occupier's assessed value for fiscal 2026, That the exemption may be not more than 35% of the average assessed value of all Class One residential parcels and that the amount changes each year
- Assessor's Department: the residential exemption · City of Waltham · retrieved Supports: $317,643 of assessed value removed from an owner-occupied residence of up to three units for fiscal 2026, The maximum 35% exemption continued by the city council, The 1 January 2025 ownership and occupancy test for the fiscal 2026 year
- Assessor's office: owner-occupant residential exemption, fiscal year 2026 · City of Everett · retrieved Supports: $204,651 of taxable value removed from an owner-occupied parcel, worth $2,582.70 at the city's $12.62 rate
- Residential exemption and fiscal 2026 tax rates · City of Cambridge Assessing Department · retrieved Supports: A 30% residential exemption for fiscal 2026, $510,208 of assessed value, worth about $3,403, A residential rate of $6.67 per $1,000 set by the city council on 20 October 2025, the lowest in the Commonwealth
- Fiscal Year 2026 Fair Market Rents: Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH HUD Metro FMR Area · United States Department of Housing and Urban Development · retrieved Supports: $2,476 for one bedroom, $2,941 for two and $3,526 for three, The ratios this layer uses to split the Zillow rent index by bedroom count, which differ from the Florida layers'
- Average home insurance cost in Massachusetts, 2026 · MoneyGeek and Insurance.com, on carrier rate filings · retrieved Supports: A Massachusetts average between roughly $1,500 and $1,900 a year against a national average near $2,800, Coastal communities running roughly a third to two thirds above the state mean, Wind and hurricane deductibles on coastal policies of 1% to 5% of dwelling value rather than a flat amount
- Chapter 59, Section 5C: residential exemption · Massachusetts General Laws · retrieved Supports: A local option exemption of not more than 35% of the average assessed value of all Class One residential parcels, The exemption applies only to a parcel that is the principal residence of the taxpayer as of 1 January, The percentage is voted annually by the municipality
- Chapter 59, Section 21C: Proposition 2 1/2 · Massachusetts General Laws · retrieved Supports: A levy ceiling of 2.5% of the total full and fair cash value of taxable property, A levy limit that may grow 2.5% a year plus certified new growth, Overrides and debt exclusions as the two ways a municipality exceeds the limit, That the cap is on the levy and not on the tax rate
- Chapter 59, Section 38: valuation at full and fair cash value · Massachusetts General Laws · retrieved Supports: Assessment at full and fair cash value, re-set annually rather than frozen at a base year, No purchase reset and no growth cap on an assessment, so a seller's bill is a fair guide to a buyer's
- Chapter 40, Section 56: classification and the minimum residential factor · Massachusetts General Laws · retrieved Supports: The power to shift part of the levy onto commercial, industrial and personal property, A ceiling of 175% of the commercial share, subject to a minimum residential factor, That the published residential rate is therefore an output of a local vote rather than a measure of what a town spends
- Chapter 64D, Section 1: excise upon deeds, instruments and writings · Massachusetts General Laws · retrieved Supports: $2.28 for each $500 of consideration, which is $4.56 per $1,000 or 0.456%, The excise falls on the person making the deed, so it is the seller's by statute, The Barnstable County rate of $2.85 per $500, which no municipality in this layer pays
- Chapter 40P: the Massachusetts Rent Control Prohibition Act · Massachusetts General Laws · retrieved Supports: No city or town may enact or enforce any control on the rent of residential property, Enacted by the 1994 ballot initiative and effective 1 January 1995, The voiding of the then-existing ordinances in Boston, Cambridge and Brookline
- Chapter 188: the declaration of homestead · Massachusetts General Laws · retrieved Supports: Protection of up to $500,000 of equity in a principal residence from most creditors on a declared homestead, and $125,000 automatically, That this is a creditor protection and not a property tax exemption, which is the confusion the caveat in lib/housing/massachusetts.ts exists to prevent
- Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts v. National Real Estate Information Services, 459 Mass. 512 · Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts · retrieved Supports: That conducting a residential real estate closing in Massachusetts is the practice of law and must be done by an attorney
- Homebuyer programs and down payment assistance · MassHousing · retrieved Supports: Down payment assistance to $30,000 generally and to $50,000 or 10% of price in Boston and the Gateway Cities
- ONE Mortgage · Massachusetts Housing Partnership · retrieved Supports: A 3% down first mortgage with no private mortgage insurance for income-eligible first-time buyers