Boston Fed Finds 83.7% of Massachusetts Families Cannot Cover $400 Emergency
Updated
Updated · The Boston Globe · Aug 17
Boston Fed Finds 83.7% of Massachusetts Families Cannot Cover $400 Emergency
1 articles · Updated · The Boston Globe · Aug 17
Summary
83.7% of Massachusetts families cannot afford a $400 emergency expense without borrowing, according to a first-of-its-kind Federal Reserve Bank of Boston wealth report.
More than 5,000 survey respondents detailed assets, debts and financial conditions, exposing sharp gaps across demographic groups in one of the nation’s richest yet most unequal states.
White families’ median wealth was nearly $550,000, versus just $1,200 for Hispanic families — a 458-fold disparity that helps explain the emergency-expense gap.
Greater Boston’s Haitian families were among the hardest hit, with more than eight in 10 unable to cover $400, while fewer than a quarter of Southeast Asian families faced that constraint.