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Boston vs Philadelphia: rent and cost of living
Pick two places to compare official price levels, Fair Market Rents, median rents and incomes, and each place’s rent cap. Add your income to see what it’s equivalent to in the other place, adjusted for price levels.
RPP-adjusted equivalent income
Your rent vs HUD Fair Market Rent
| Measure | Boston | Philadelphia |
|---|---|---|
| Rent cap now | No cap | No cap |
| Prices, all items BEA RPP, US = 100 | 108.3 | 102.6 |
| Housing prices BEA RPP | 148.4 | 113.1 |
| Fair Market Rent, 2 bedrooms HUD FY2027 | $3,008 | $1,860 |
| Median gross rent ACS 2020–2024 | $2,147/mo | $1,397/mo |
| Median household income ACS | $97,344 | $61,953 |
| Median rent as % of income ACS, renters | 30.6% | 31.4% |
| Areas used | Prices: Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area FMR: Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH HUD Metro FMR Area ACS: Boston city, Massachusetts | Prices: Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area FMR: Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA ACS: Philadelphia city, Pennsylvania |
Can I afford rent there? → Boston page → Philadelphia page →
The equivalent income multiplies your income by the ratio of the two areas’ all-items price levels (BEA Regional Price Parities). It is a price-level adjustment, not a prediction or a guarantee: it ignores taxes, wages, the rent you’d actually find and your own spending.
The short version
Boston and Philadelphia in official figures
BEA puts the all-items price level for the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area at 108.3 and for the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro area at 102.6 (US = 100). By that measure, an income of $100,000 in Boston has about the same purchasing power as $94,724 in Philadelphia, before taxes and with every other difference ignored.
HUD’s FY2027 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is $3,008 in Boston and $1,860 in Philadelphia. Rent caps: Boston — No cap; Philadelphia — No cap. See the Boston and Philadelphia pages for who is covered.
How it works
Where the numbers come from
Price levels are BEA Regional Price Parities, an index of how expensive an area is compared with the US average (all items = 100). We use the metro area a city or county is in (OMB’s July 2023 metro definitions), or the state on statewide pages. The equivalent income is your income × (price level there ÷ price level here).
Fair Market Rents are HUD’s published rents for each metro area or county, by unit size. Median rent, median income and rent as a share of income are Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates for the city itself (or the county or state on those pages). Every figure names the area it describes.
- BEA Regional Price Parities by metropolitan area (MARPP) ↗ · 2024 (released February 19, 2026) · about the data ↗ · retrieved Oct 18, 2026
- BEA Regional Price Parities by state (SARPP) ↗ · 2024 (released February 19, 2026) · about the data ↗ · retrieved Oct 18, 2026
- OMB metropolitan area delineations (Census list 1, July 2023) ↗ · July 2023 (OMB Bulletin 23-01) · retrieved Oct 18, 2026
- HUD Fair Market Rents, FY2027 (county-level data file) ↗ · FY2027 · about the data ↗ · retrieved Oct 18, 2026
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (tables B25064, B19013, B25071) ↗ · 2020–2024 · about the data ↗ · retrieved Oct 18, 2026
Privacy
Everything is calculated in your browser. Only the two place names go in the page address (so you can share a comparison); your income and rent never do, and our analytics record only which places you compared and yes/no for whether you entered an income or a rent.