Boston, New York.
. Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,478 (+116%) since Jan 2020.
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- New York$2,755
- United States$1,922
Living in Boston, Erie County, New York
Boston is a town of 7,948 people in Erie County. Half its households earn more than $92,482 a year and half less, against $72,839 across Erie County; 5% of its people live below the poverty line. 80% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 20% are rented. Unemployment in Erie County was 4.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Boston is a small town in Erie County where most homes are lived in by their owners, and where households earn more than the county as a whole. Residents tend to be older than in most places, and relatively few live below the poverty line. Winters are cold and very snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings the warmest weather, with pleasant highs.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, the building trades and shops also providing many jobs. Across Erie County, some of the largest employers are Kaleida Health, the Buffalo City School District and the University at Buffalo. A typical commute is a fairly short drive, and some people work from home.
Things to do. Chestnut Ridge Park, a protected area, and Eternal Flame Falls, a waterfall, are both a short drive away, as is Highmark Stadium. A longer drive brings you to the Niagara River and the Buffalo AKG Art Museum.
Report a mistake
- 3,669households
- 32%of adults have a degree
- 5%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Erie County had 464,902 jobs in 2025, 0.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 77° and lows near 59°. About 168 inches of snow and 53 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Colden 1W weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Erie County
- Kaleida HealthGeneral hospital6,761FTE
- Buffalo City School DistrictSchool district6,399FTE
- University at BuffaloUniversity or college5,548
- PeopleGroup homes, intellectual and developmental disability4,355
- Moog, Inc. - East AuroraFluid power valves and hose fitting4,216
- Erie County Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,930FTE
- ACV Auctions Inc. - HeadquartersBusiness to business electronic markets, durable goods, wholesale trade2,733
- Mercy Hospital of BuffaloGeneral hospital2,141FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 864 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 128,036 people in all across the county; Boston has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Cold wavesVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Erie County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Erie County and the Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY metro.
Boston home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Boston8
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Boston address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Boston — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.