Report: Transportation Drives Up Costs In Central Mass.
It may be cheap to find a house or apartment in Central Massachusetts, but that doesn't mean the cost of living is significantly lower, according to a new report on housing and transportation in the Greater Boston region.
The average person in Central Massachusetts spends 53 percent of his or her annual income on housing and transportation costs, according to the report, which was produced by the Urban Land Institute Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing.
Interestingly, the most affordable regions studied were what the researchers called North and South MetroWest. In those areas, residents spend approximately 48 percent of income on housing and transportation. In Boston, the spending on shelter and travel averaged out to be 56 percent. While Boston has very high real estate costs, its transportation costs - thanks to the T - were the lowest of all the regions at about $7,000 per year. In Central Massachusetts, transportation costs averaged nearly $13,000 annually.
The report's authors are advocating for better planning, zoning and funding for public transportation to decrease the cost of living in the Greater Boston area.
"These findings illustrate that years of ever-sprawling development have resulted in a growing gap between where people live and where they work," said J. Ronald Terwilliger, chairman of the Urban Land Institute Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing, in a press release.
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