Waltham, Mass. – A new report, “Leveraging Mobility in Boston: Economic Well-Being and the Flow of Wealth Across Three Generations of Low- and Middle-Income Families,” was completed after researchers lost federal funding and turned to local support to continue a decades-long study of wealth, housing and inequality.
Researchers at Brandeis University’s Institute for Economic and Racial Equity had secured funding from the Social Security Administration to continue research in Boston and two other cities. But that work was impacted by sweeping federal stop-work orders issued by the Trump administration, according to Tatjana Meschede, associate director of the institute.
The interruption reduced the scope of the project, limiting researchers to Boston and eliminating planned data collection in the other cities. Meschede said local foundation funding from organizations like the Boston Foundation ultimately allowed the latest phase of the Boston study to move forward.
“It was critically important as we would have not been able to collect data in Boston without this funding,” Meschede said.
Home ownership moving out of reach for younger people
The findings from that research paint a troubling picture of economic mobility in the city. The report, which follows 15 low-to middle-income families across three generations between 1998 and 2025, found that wealth has become increasingly important in determining who can access housing, education and long-term financial security.
Researchers identified housing as the primary mechanism for building wealth but found that rising home prices and rents have made ownership increasingly difficult for younger generations. The study also found that financial support from parents is increasingly being used to help adult children meet everyday expenses rather than purchase homes and build assets.
Boston’s housing market has become significantly more expensive since the study began. Median home prices have risen from the low hundreds of thousands in the late 1990s to near or above $800,000 in 2025, according to the report. Rent has also increased, with a two-bedroom apartment now exceeding $3,000 per month.
“In the grandparent generation, a lot of support went into real estate, first home purchases for those with higher wealth,” Meschede said. “Now we see it much more going toward daily living expenses, less in terms of real estate investments for young adults.”
Family wealth now a better indicator of success than education level
The report found that younger adults are often more educated than previous generations but still struggle to achieve financial independence in Boston’s housing market. Researchers said access to family wealth increasingly determines who can purchase a home and accumulate assets.
That dynamic is consistent with broader patterns across the city, according to Japonica Brown-Saracino, an ethnographer and chair of sociology at Boston University. Brown-Saracino, who studies gentrification and urban inequality, said Boston now shows “an extremely gentrified city” with uneven pressure across neighborhoods.
She said wealthier areas like the Back Bay, Seaport and South End have entered what scholars call “super gentrification,” where even affluent professionals feel pricing pressure. At the same time, she said working-class neighborhoods face displacement as costs rise across the region. “More and more we see people looking well beyond Boston to either purchase a home or rent,” she said.
The report suggests that economic mobility in Boston is increasingly shaped by factors beyond education or employment alone. As housing costs rise and homeownership becomes more dependent on family wealth, researchers found that the ability to build long-term financial security is becoming less accessible for many residents.
At the same time reduced support for long-term inequality research could limit the ability of policymakers and the public to understand how those challenges continue to evolve across generations.
Less public money available for research into economic trends
Meschede said the loss of federal support raises concerns about the future of long-term studies examining inequality and economic opportunity.
“Federal funding for race and gender and inequity focused research is no longer available which will have a huge implication on our ability to study these critical social policy issues,” she said.
