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Greater Boston's Population Growth Cools as Housing Costs Stay Sky-High, Report Finds
Greater Boston added just 9,000 residents in 2025, down from 49,000 the year before, while the median single-family home price hit $772,000 and families need roughly $180,000 a year to afford even a low-priced town, according to a new Boston Foundation report.
Greater Boston's population boom is fading fast, and the region's housing market remains among the least affordable in the country, according to the Greater Boston Housing Report Card for 2026 released this week by the Boston Foundation.
The region added only about 9,000 residents in 2025, a steep drop from the 49,000 added in 2024, the report found. Growth appears to be slowing even further this year.
Two forces are driving the slowdown, according to the report: the region's high cost of living and federal immigration policies that have cut international migration to Greater Boston roughly in half. On top of that, nearly 32,000 people left the region last year for other parts of the United States.
"The high regional cost of living and federal immigration policies slow population growth, and the regional economy has lost steam," Luc Schuster of the Boston Foundation said in a statement. "Meanwhile, the slowdown in housing construction has left us short of needed progress on the region's housing gap."
The price picture is stark. The median sale price for a single-family home across Greater Boston is $772,000, and in Cambridge, Wellesley, Weston and Brookline it tops $2 million. Only six communities â Ashby, Avon, Brockton, Shirley, Townsend and Wareham â had median prices below $500,000.
Even in what the report calls a "low-priced town," where the median sale price is $600,000, a family needs to earn at least $180,000 a year to afford a home. A separate SmartAsset study this summer found Massachusetts was the most expensive state in the country for a family to live comfortably.
Homebuilding rose in 2024 and 2025, but the report indicates fewer homes are going up this year, which is unlikely to bring prices down.
Still, the report points to some "hopeful signs." Keith Mahoney of the Boston Foundation said new policies on zoning and accessory dwelling units could help clear a path for construction that makes a difference over the longer term.
"While current supply has slowed, prices and cost burdens remain high, the impact of new policies addressing zoning, accessory dwelling units and more can help clear a path for new housing that can move the needle in the longer-term on housing," Mahoney said.
The findings land as affordability remains a central concern for residents across the region, with the combination of slowing population growth and stubbornly high prices raising questions about the area's economic momentum and who can still afford to call it home.