Massachusetts by the numbers
In Massachusetts, the median worker earns $62,270 a year, the typical home is worth $525,800 and carries $5,813 of property tax, and the average household pays $183 a month for electricity at 28.82¢ per kilowatt-hour.
Northeast ISO New England Retail choice statewide
Energy
It is easy to blame Massachusetts rates on the price of power. The larger share of the story is the delivery side. The state runs an ambitious set of programmes through the electric bill: energy efficiency through Mass Save, solar incentive recovery, storm and grid resilience investment, and low-income discount subsidies. Each is a line item on delivery, and delivery has been growing faster than supply for several years.
The supply side still matters in winter. Massachusetts sits at the end of the same constrained pipeline network as the rest of New England, and the region's marginal generator is usually gas. Basic-service supply prices are procured twice a year, so the winter rate and the summer rate can differ by a wide margin even when nothing about the underlying market has changed.
The state is also a large offshore-wind buyer. Those contracts are long-dated and their costs enter rates gradually, which affects the trajectory more than the current figure.
Averaged across the twelve months to May 2026, Massachusetts households used 603 kilowatt-hours a month and paid $183. At the state median wage that is about 6.1 hours of work a month to keep the lights on. For heating, gas is still cheaper to run than a heat pump here, by about $4.68 per million BTU.
Work and pay
The median Massachusetts worker earned $62,270 in 2024, 25.8% above the national median. What distinguishes a state's labour market is rarely its biggest occupations, which are retail and food service everywhere, but what it has disproportionately.
| Occupation | Concentration | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Biochemists and Biophysicists | 16.59× | $127,520 |
| Bioengineers and Biomedical Engineers | 7.58× | $107,720 |
| Biological Technicians | 4.78× | $65,020 |
| Microbiologists | 4.51× | $126,260 |
| Medical Scientists, Except Epidemiologists | 4.38× | $129,230 |
Property tax
The median Massachusetts homeowner pays $5,813 a year on a home worth $525,800, an effective rate of 1.11% against a national 0.98%. Nobody sets that rate. It is what falls out of county, city, school district and special district levies applied to an assessed value, so the state figure is a weighted average of 14 counties rather than a posted number.
Cost of living
Prices in Massachusetts run at 105.8 where the national average is 100, ranking it #7 of 51. Goods sit at 98.8, which is close to national almost everywhere because most goods are shipped and priced nationally. Rents sit at 128.1, and that is where states actually separate from one another. A median wage of $62,270 therefore buys what $58,856 buys nationally.
Metro areas priced separately: Boston-Cambridge-Newton (108.3) , Worcester (102.5) , Providence-Warwick (101.8) , Amherst Town-Northampton (100.2) , Barnstable Town (98.4) .
Housing
House prices in Massachusetts rose 3.6% over the year to 2026 Q2, against a median across all states of +2.7%. Over ten years the index is +97.5%. Prices are at or near their record level.
Metro areas tracked here: Providence-Warwick (+4.1%) , Worcester (+2.9%) .
Who supplies the power
26 utilities report residential service in Massachusetts, together serving 1.3 million customers. Retail choice statewide.
Massachusetts: common questions
What does it cost to live in Massachusetts?
Prices overall run at 105.8 against a national average of 100, with rents at 128.1. The typical home is worth $525,800 and carries $5,813 a year in property tax, an effective rate of 1.11% against a national 0.98%. Electricity averages $183 a month at 28.82¢ per kilowatt-hour. Against that, the median wage is $62,270.
What is the property tax rate in Massachusetts?
The effective rate is 1.11% of home value, from a median bill of $5,813. It is set locally rather than by the state, so the figure is a weighted outcome across 14 counties. County by county rates.
Does a salary go further in Massachusetts?
The median wage of $62,270 buys what $58,856 buys nationally, once local prices are taken out. A state paying above the national median while charging above it for housing can leave a household no better off, and this is the arithmetic that shows which side of that line Massachusetts falls on.
Is Massachusetts expensive for electricity?
It ranks #5 of 51 jurisdictions on price at 28.82¢ per kilowatt-hour, +56.3% against the U.S. average. On the actual bill it ranks 5 of 51, because households there use 603 kWh a month against a national 871.
What is the median salary in Massachusetts?
$62,270 across all occupations, about $29.94 an hour, covering 3,642,650 wage and salary workers as of 2024.
Who supplies electricity in Massachusetts?
26 utilities report residential service, the largest being Massachusetts Electric Co with 526,437 customers. Retail choice statewide.
Electricity May 2026, gas 2024, utilities 2024, wages 2024. All figures from federal statistical agencies. Methodology · Sources