Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Somerville's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Somerville?
Your $100,000 in Somerville has the same purchasing power as $78,827 in the average US city. You'd need $21,173 more here to maintain that standard of living.
Demographics and workforce data from the US Census ACS 5-Year.
bachelor's or higher
Climate, safety, and walkability indicators.
See a side-by-side breakdown of cost of living, housing, and salaries.
Popular comparisons
Sorted by affordability — most affordable first.
Within 10 points of Somerville's cost index of 127, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to Somerville, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. Above-average earnings, not just for a few people and low unemployment, plenty of openings lead, plus 5 more things worth knowing — the rest unpacked below.
Somerville's typical household earns $120,778, which puts it in the top tier of US cities for household income. The bottom of the wage distribution isn't necessarily different from anywhere else, but the median and above sit meaningfully higher.
At about 2.8% unemployment, Somerville's labor market is running on the tight side. Easier to land a role, easier to negotiate, easier to leave one job for a better one — the practical things that matter when you're actually looking.
The reported crime rate in Somerville runs about 1,637 per 100,000 residents — meaningfully below the national norm. People who care about safety as a baseline rather than a feature tend to land in cities with numbers like these.
With a Walk Score of 93/100, Somerville is in the category where car ownership becomes a real choice rather than the default. Errands work on foot, the city's built dense enough that things are actually close together, and the parking-and-gas budget can quietly disappear. Transit Score comes in at 75/100 too, so even the trips that are too far to walk are usually doable on a bus or train.
Bike Score of 88/100 in Somerville. That puts it in the small group of US cities where you can do groceries, commute, and run errands on a bike without it being a feat of urban survival.
Average AQI in Somerville comes in around 34, well into the "good" band. Clean air isn't a thing you appreciate until you've lived somewhere it wasn't — and this is the side of that line you want to be on.
Somerville has a college-educated share of about 67% among adults 25+, which is higher than the national norm. It shows up in the local job mix, in the school district's reputation, and in the kind of conversations you have at the coffee shop.
Reasons are pulled from Somerville's actual data — Census ACS, BLS, BEA, NOAA, EPA AQS, FBI, and Walk Score. We don't list positives that aren't supported by the numbers, which is why different cities show different sections.
Snow is a regular feature, not a surprise. With winter temperatures hovering near 26°F, Somerville sees enough snowfall that locals don't think twice about it but also enough mild stretches that nobody owns three pairs of boots.
A real winter, but not a punishing one. Somerville averages roughly 26°F in winter, with the coldest mornings dipping into the single digits a few times a year and most days landing somewhere between "chilly" and "actually cold".
Warm without being brutal. Summer in Somerville sits about 80°F on average. Afternoons can push into the high 80s, but mornings and evenings are usually genuinely pleasant.
Zone 8, give or take a half-zone. Somerville's typical winter low puts it in that band on the USDA Hardiness map, which is what nurseries label plants against. Use Zone 8 as your starting filter; the USDA's interactive map is more precise for borderline cases.
Around 75 feet (23 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Somerville's altitude shows up in daily life.
Atlantic basin storms can form from June 1 to November 30, but the serious ones cluster in August, September, and the first half of October. Residents of Somerville learn the season's rhythm fast: watch the cone, board up when it's the call, and don't shrug off the slow-mover storms — those are usually the ones that flood.
The headline number is reassuring. Somerville's reported incident rate of about 1,637 per 100,000 is comfortably below the US norm of around 3,500 per 100k. Specific neighborhoods always vary, but the broader picture is on the safer side.
More expensive than average — by enough to plan around. Somerville's composite index is 127 versus 100 for the US, with rent and home prices driving most of the gap. Salaries in higher-paying industries usually move together, but the math still tightens for everyone else.
Yes, by US standards it's extraordinary. Somerville scores 93/100, one of the highest in the country. Transit Score is 75 out of 100. Living here without a car isn't just possible; for many residents it's the default.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $88,802 to live in Somerville the way a $70,000 earner lives in a typical US city. The math gets less forgiving the lower you go below that. Median rent in Somerville runs about $2,357/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.