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City 360 · CambridgeOperated by TOKUMA Foundation
T03

TRUE Affordability Across Generations

What a household actually has left after housing, utilities, transport, care and the other costs of living here.

8 of 11 measures connected

  • -26.3% to +20.3%

    Distance between a needs budget and a qualifying limit, of the published qualifying limit for that household size

    Scenario— show source

    Selected assumptions rather than a record of what happened. Excluded from factual totals.

    Method: The range across the three published household archetypes of required annual income before taxes measured against the HUD 80% AMI limit for the nominally corresponding household size. Stated as a range because the sign of the answer changes between archetypes, and stated as a scenario because the comparability of the two household definitions and the two geographies is an assumption no publisher has made.

Required annual income, by household

US dollars per household per year · 9 households, ranked highest first

Required annual income, by household — US dollars per household per year, by household
householdUS dollars per household per year
1 Adult, 1 Child — Required annual income before taxes131,941
2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Required annual income before taxes114,125
1 Adult, 1 Child — Required annual income after taxes104,264
2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Required annual income after taxes98,202
1 Adult, 0 Children — Required annual income before taxes70,707
1 Adult, 0 Children — Required annual income after taxes55,842
1 Adult, 1 Child — Annual taxes27,678
2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Annual taxes15,924
1 Adult, 0 Children — Annual taxes14,865

Fact— show source

Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.

Living Wage Calculator — Middlesex County, Massachusetts · Living Wage Institute (hosted at livingwage.mit.edu) · Typical Annual Expenses, by household composition · recorded February 15, 2026 · verified August 17, 2026

Why it matters

A rent figure alone does not say whether a household can afford to stay. The same rent is affordable to one household and not to another, and an area median income is a citywide average that few individual households resemble.

Scope

Needs-based affordability by age and household and neighborhood; housing, utilities, transport, care and the residual after essential costs.

How it is measured

Costs are built up from published need estimates rather than from a single ratio. Every figure states the household composition and the year it applies to, because an affordability number without both is not comparable to anything.

Measures

This tracker asks what it actually costs a given kind of household to live here — housing, food, care, medical, transport, taxes — and how that compares with the income limits the City uses to decide who qualifies for an affordable home. Today it can show the published cost budgets and the published qualifying limits with their sources. It cannot yet say what share of any neighborhood qualifies, so it says that plainly instead of estimating it.

Published · 8

These carry a figure from an official record, with the source and the arithmetic that produced it.

What it costs to live here

  • Cost components of the needs-based annual budget, by household

    Each published annual cost component for a household of the stated composition: Food, Child Care, Medical, Housing, Transportation, Civic, Internet & Mobile, Other.Each figure describes one household of the stated composition, for one year — A level, not a ratio. Stated so a household budget is not read as a per-person or per-worker amount.
    How this is measured

    US dollars per household per year · The publisher gives no interval, standard error or confidence range for any component. The geography is the county rather than the city, and the figures are a model of what a household needs rather than a record of what households spend. The taxes carried alongside them derive from the 2026 federal poverty guidelines and January 2026 minimum wage data per the publisher's own note.

    24 rows · Fact
    • 1 Adult, 0 Children — Food5,118
    • 1 Adult, 0 Children — Child Care0
    • 1 Adult, 0 Children — Medical4,067
    • 1 Adult, 0 Children — Housing28,402
    • 1 Adult, 0 Children — Transportation8,013
    • 1 Adult, 0 Children — Civic3,456
    • 1 Adult, 0 Children — Internet & Mobile2,071
    • 1 Adult, 0 Children — Other4,715
    • 1 Adult, 1 Child — Food7,507
    • 1 Adult, 1 Child — Child Care24,408
    • 1 Adult, 1 Child — Medical10,355
    • 1 Adult, 1 Child — Housing36,243
    • 1 Adult, 1 Child — Transportation9,273
    • 1 Adult, 1 Child — Civic5,834
    • 1 Adult, 1 Child — Internet & Mobile2,071
    • 1 Adult, 1 Child — Other8,573
    • 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Food14,977
    • 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Child Care0
    • 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Medical11,929
    • 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Housing36,243
    • 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Transportation13,441
    • 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Civic8,762
    • 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Internet & Mobile2,646
    • 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Other10,204

  • Required annual income, by household

    The published required annual income after taxes, the published annual taxes, and the published required annual income before taxes, for a household of the stated composition.Each figure describes one household of the stated composition, for one year — A level, not a ratio.
    How this is measured

    US dollars per household per year · No interval is published. The geography is the county rather than the city, and the figure is a requirement produced by a model rather than an observed income. The tax line reflects the publisher's stated 2026 basis and would move with any change to it.

    9 rows · Fact
    • 1 Adult, 0 Children — Required annual income after taxes55,842
    • 1 Adult, 0 Children — Annual taxes14,865
    • 1 Adult, 0 Children — Required annual income before taxes70,707
    • 1 Adult, 1 Child — Required annual income after taxes104,264
    • 1 Adult, 1 Child — Annual taxes27,678
    • 1 Adult, 1 Child — Required annual income before taxes131,941
    • 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Required annual income after taxes98,202
    • 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Annual taxes15,924
    • 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Required annual income before taxes114,125

  • Largest cost component, as a share of the after-tax budget

    The largest single published cost component for the household, in annual dollars.required annual income after taxes for the same household, from the same published table and the same vintage — Both terms come from one row set, so there is no cross-source or cross-vintage judgement in the division.
    How this is measured

    percent of the after-tax needs budget · Inherits the county substitution and the modelled basis of both inputs, and no interval is published for either. The rounding is stated because a reader summing displayed shares across components would otherwise be surprised by a residual. Largest is an arithmetic rule over the published components, not a claim about which cost is hardest for a household to bear.

    • 1 Adult, 0 Children — Housing50.9
    • 1 Adult, 1 Child — Housing34.8
    • 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children — Housing36.9

What the City's programs require

  • Published income limit, by household size and band

    The published annual income limit for the stated band and household size.Each figure describes one household of the stated size, for one year — A level, not a ratio. The household-size denominator is the whole point, because the limit varies with it.
    How this is measured

    US dollars per year, effective June 1, 2026 · The publisher states that all income limits are subject to change, so the revision risk is declared by the source rather than inferred by us. The geography is the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH Metro FMR Area, which is far broader than Cambridge. This table replaces a prior effective date and will be replaced again. One column is printed as a HUD figure while falling outside the footnote's list of HUD-supplied bands, and that ambiguity is recorded rather than resolved.

    48 rows · Fact
    • 1 person household — City 50% of Median57,600
    • 1 person household — HUD 50% AMI60,000
    • 1 person household — HUD 60% of Median72,000
    • 1 person household — HUD 80% AMI96,000
    • 1 person household — HUD 100% of Median115,200
    • 1 person household — 120% of Median138,260
    • 2 person household — City 50% of Median65,850
    • 2 person household — HUD 50% AMI68,600
    • 2 person household — HUD 60% of Median82,320
    • 2 person household — HUD 80% AMI109,700
    • 2 person household — HUD 100% of Median131,700
    • 2 person household — 120% of Median158,020
    • 3 person household — City 50% of Median74,050
    • 3 person household — HUD 50% AMI77,150
    • 3 person household — HUD 60% of Median92,580
    • 3 person household — HUD 80% AMI123,400
    • 3 person household — HUD 100% of Median148,100
    • 3 person household — 120% of Median177,770
    • 4 person household — City 50% of Median82,300
    • 4 person household — HUD 50% AMI85,700
    • 4 person household — HUD 60% of Median102,840
    • 4 person household — HUD 80% AMI137,100
    • 4 person household — HUD 100% of Median164,600
    • 4 person household — 120% of Median197,520
    • 5 person household — City 50% of Median88,900
    • 5 person household — HUD 50% AMI92,600
    • 5 person household — HUD 60% of Median111,120
    • 5 person household — HUD 80% AMI148,100
    • 5 person household — HUD 100% of Median177,800
    • 5 person household — 120% of Median213,320
    • 6 person household — City 50% of Median95,450
    • 6 person household — HUD 50% AMI99,450
    • 6 person household — HUD 60% of Median119,340
    • 6 person household — HUD 80% AMI159,050
    • 6 person household — HUD 100% of Median190,900
    • 6 person household — 120% of Median229,120
    • 7 person household — City 50% of Median102,050
    • 7 person household — HUD 50% AMI106,300
    • 7 person household — HUD 60% of Median127,560
    • 7 person household — HUD 80% AMI170,050
    • 7 person household — HUD 100% of Median204,100
    • 7 person household — 120% of Median244,920
    • 8 person household — City 50% of Median108,650
    • 8 person household — HUD 50% AMI113,150
    • 8 person household — HUD 60% of Median135,780
    • 8 person household — HUD 80% AMI181,000
    • 8 person household — HUD 100% of Median217,300
    • 8 person household — 120% of Median260,730

  • Programs the published limit table assigns to each band

    No denominator — An assignment of a program to a band is not measured against anything. Supplying a denominator would invent a rate where the source states a mapping.

    How this is measured

    band name, or first and last band of a published range · The publisher carries this mapping graphically rather than in prose, so each row records the mark it was read from. One bracket carries four programs whose bullets are typeset across two columns while the document drops a single connector onto one of them; that row names the ambiguity rather than hiding it, and a household relying on it should confirm the band with the Housing Department.

    10 rows · Fact
    • CHA Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8 program)HUD 50% AMI
    • FTHB Downpayment AssistanceHUD 80% AMI
    • Most private & non-profit affordable housingHUD 80% AMI
    • CHA Elderly & Family Housing ProgramsHUD 80% AMI
    • Home Improvement ProgramHUD 80% AMI
    • Home Improvement Program (for NRSAs)120% of Median
    • Inclusionary Housing Rental ProgramCity 50% of Median to HUD 80% AMI
    • Homeownership Resale PoolCity 50% of Median to HUD 100% of Median
    • HomeBridgeHUD 60% of Median to 120% of Median
    • Middle-Income Rental ProgramHUD 80% AMI to 120% of Median

  • The rule converting household income into an affordable monthly cost

    Monthly cost of an income-restricted unit.monthly household income — The publisher does not state whether utilities fall inside or outside the monthly cost, and the two readings give materially different answers.
    How this is measured

    percent of monthly household income, fixed at 30 by the rule · The page stating the rule carries no effective date and no exceptions list, and does not say whether utilities sit inside or outside the thirty percent. That is recorded as an open definitional question rather than settled in either direction, because settling it silently would change every monthly figure derived from the rule.

    Monthly costs for affordable units are set at 30% of household income.

    Fact
    Source

    Direct from an identified authoritative or primary source.

    Inclusionary Housing · City of Cambridge Community Development Department · Statement of how monthly costs for affordable units are set · verified August 17, 2026

Putting the two side by side

  • Distance between a needs budget and a qualifying limit

    Required annual income before taxes for a household archetype, minus the published qualifying limit for the nominally corresponding household size.the published qualifying limit for that household size — The two terms come from different publishers, different geographies, different household taxonomies and different effective dates.
    How this is measured

    percent of the qualifying limit, and US dollars per year · Two geographies, Middlesex County against the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH Metro FMR Area. Two incompatible household taxonomies, one adult with no children against one person. Two effective dates, February 15, 2026 against June 1, 2026. No publisher endorses the comparison, and every one of these mismatches is displayed alongside the result rather than noted once and forgotten.

    -26.3% to +20.3%

    Scenario
    Source

    Selected assumptions rather than a record of what happened. Excluded from factual totals.

    Method: The range across the three published household archetypes of required annual income before taxes measured against the HUD 80% AMI limit for the nominally corresponding household size. Stated as a range because the sign of the answer changes between archetypes, and stated as a scenario because the comparability of the two household definitions and the two geographies is an assumption no publisher has made.

    3 rows · Scenario
    • 1 Adult, 0 Children against the HUD 80% AMI limit for 1 person(s)-26.3
    • 1 Adult, 1 Child against the HUD 80% AMI limit for 2 person(s)20.3
    • 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 Children against the HUD 80% AMI limit for 4 person(s)-16.8

What cannot be answered yet

  • Life stages covered by a published needs budget

    For each life stage this tracker covers, the published household archetypes that describe it.the life stages enumerated in this module as within the tracker's scope — The denominator is a documented scope commitment that City 360 authored, not a measurement. It changes if the scope changes, and it is held as a list so that change is a visible edit.
    How this is measured

    covered or not covered, per named life stage · The rows record what a publisher publishes and what this tracker committed to cover. The first half is checkable against the source; the second half is an editorial commitment and is labelled as one, because a coverage figure whose denominator is invisible is the oldest way to make a gap look like completeness.

    • Working-age adult household, no children1 Adult, 0 ChildrenFact
    • Working-age adult household with children1 Adult, 1 Child; 2 Adults (1 Working), 2 ChildrenFact
    • Older-adult householdMissing
    • Household including a person with a disabilityMissing

Not published · 3

These name the record that would answer them and, where we have looked, when we last checked. Several are not merely unconnected but impossible to compute from anything published today; the measure says which.

What cannot be answered yet

  • Share of households in a neighborhood at or below the qualifying limitMissing
  • What a household has left after essential costsMissing
  • Utilities cost for a Cambridge householdMissing

How these are measured

Why a county figure appears on a city page
The publisher of the needs budget does not publish below county level for this area, so every cost component is a Middlesex County figure standing in for a Cambridge one. Rather than relabel it, each measure records the geography asked for, the geography provided and the mismatch between them, and the substitution renders beside the number. Cambridge housing costs in particular are not the county average.
A needs budget is not a spending record
These figures estimate what a household of a given composition would need to earn to meet a modelled standard of living. No household in this area was surveyed to produce them, and they should not be read as what local households actually spend. That is why every one of them carries a modelled basis alongside its source badge: the citation is about the record, the basis is about the world.
The components add up, and that is checked
The eight published cost components sum exactly to the published required annual income after taxes for each household, and adding the published tax line reaches the before-tax figure. No rounding tolerance is allowed: a non-zero difference means a component was dropped from the table or mistranscribed, so the reconciliation is asserted in the test suite rather than displayed as a figure. A number telling a reader that zero equals zero teaches them nothing; a test that fails on a dropped component protects them.
What the largest-line mark means
The mark identifies the component with the largest share of that household's required annual income after taxes. It is an arithmetic rule over published figures, stated so a reader can check why a row is marked, and it carries no claim about which cost is hardest to bear. A component that is not marked is not thereby affordable.
Why no neighborhood share appears
The qualifying rule varies by household size, so a share of qualifying households needs a joint distribution of household income by household size. The census publishes income and household size as separate totals at block-group level, and one cannot be recovered from the other. Applying a citywide average household size to an income distribution would produce a precise, confident, wrong figure. The federal cross-tabulation that comes closest uses percentage-of-median brackets rather than the City's dollar limits, keys on household characteristics rather than household size, and stops at the census tract.
Cambridge neighborhoods are not census geographies
The City aggregates census block groups to approximate neighborhood boundaries and publishes that caveat itself, naming three neighborhoods where the fit is poor. The crosswalk it used is not published, so even once a distribution exists a neighborhood figure could not be independently reproduced. That makes the neighborhood uncertainty a citable fact rather than an editorial hedge.

What you can do about it

  • Read the published limit table yourself

    The table transcribed here is one page. It lists every household size, every band, which bands come from HUD, and which programs sit at which band.

    Received by: City of Cambridge Housing Department

    Housing Program Income Limits

  • Ask a program administrator whether a household qualifies

    Eligibility is decided against a filed application by the body running the program, not by any figure on this page. That is also where to confirm which band a specific program uses.

    Received by: The program administrator or managing agent for the program concerned

    Inclusionary Housing

  • Check the needs budget against its publisher

    Every component here is transcribed from one published table for Middlesex County. The publisher states its own vintage and its tax basis on the same page.

    Received by: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    Living Wage Calculator, Middlesex County

  • See every source this page relies on

    The register lists each record once, with what depends on it and when it was last read, alongside the gaps that are still open.

    Sources

  • Report something that looks wrong

    A mistranscribed limit or a superseded effective date is a correction, and corrections are tracked in public rather than quietly edited.

    Corrections

Sources

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A residential street in Cambridge at dusk, with lit windows.

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