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In 2025, renting will be more affordable for the majority of Massachusetts residents compared to purchasing a home, according to a new analysis.

According to ATTOM’s 2025 Rental Affordability Report, residents of Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, and Norfolk counties (which make up the broader Boston metro area) will see a lesser portion of their weekly wages go towards paying rent compared to if they purchased a home. In Suffolk County, in particular, renting makes up 35.7 percent of a renter’s weekly wages compared to 42.4 percent if they had purchased a single-family home.

But further south and in Central and Western Massachusetts, owning a home is a better option. In Worcester County, renting makes up 51.7 percent of a resident’s weekly wage compared to 47.2 percent when owning a home (assuming a 20 percent down payment was paid on the property). This is also the case in Plymouth County where a margin of 1.2 percent separates homeownership from being more affordable than renting (62.2 percent and 63.4 percent of weekly wages respectively).

This aligns with the national trend of homeownership being more affordable than renting. ATTOM’s report shows that owning a home in the United States is more affordable than renting a three-bedroom property in more than half of county-level housing markets around the nation.

“Buying or renting a home in the U.S. these days can be like searching for a diamond in a pile of marbles, and it’s only getting worse in most markets as the cost of both goes up,” Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM, said in a statement. “However, in most parts of the country, homeownership is somewhat more attainable for those who can gather the necessary resources to cover down payments that often surpass $200,000.”