Mortgage payments in Greater Boston still rank among the highest in the nation. But a shift has taken place. No longer are prospective buyers getting caught up in the frenzy of bidding wars and stretching their purchase price and mortgage payment to the maximum they can afford. Instead, real estate professionals say that buyers are taking a more cautious approach today, thinking twice about what they’re willing to pay.

According to data recently released by LendingTree, the average mortgage payment on home purchases fell 2.4 percent in 2025, from $1,990 in 2024 to $1,942 per month (for principal and interest only). Still, home affordability remains a challenge: LendingTree reported that one in 10 borrowers are significantly cost-burdened, with 10.2 percent of borrowers nationwide spending 40 percent or more of their income on new mortgage payments.

According to the data, Greater Boston ranked seventh for metros with the highest average new mortgage payments in 2025. The average mortgage payment in the area was $2,784 a month, and 31.4 percent of borrowers spent at least 30 percent of their income on their mortgage payment.

Of course, if you add the other costs that get rolled into mortgage payments — property taxes, home insurance, and private mortgage insurance — that monthly housing cost goes up even higher, and that doesn’t even include utilities and homeowners association fees. While LendingTree couldn’t provide a total monthly housing cost for the Boston metro, WalletHub recently released data on the states where people spend the most and least for housing, and Massachusetts ranked third on that list, with average homeowners there paying about 34 percent of their income on housing costs, second only to Hawaii and California.

“Boston’s core issue is simple: too many people are chasing too few homes,” said Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief consumer finance analyst. “The area has struggled with housing supply for years, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon.”

The good news is that despite the price pressure and challenge of bidding wars, local experts say that buyers today are not stretching their budgets just to get into a home and then find that they became cash-poor in the process.

“People today are a little more strategic,” said Melvin A. Vieira Jr., a real estate agent with Re/Max Real Estate Center in Boston. “Buyers are more educated, and they’ve heard about the bidding wars of the past, so they’re making reasonable decisions rather than emotional ones.”

Consider Sarah, 36, and Mike McCracken, 38. When they were searching for their first home, they were approved for a $900,000 mortgage and could have easily afforded the four-bedroom, three-bath Colonial in Sudbury that they fell in love with. But Sarah was nervous about owing more than $650,000. So, they expanded their search and found a smaller Cape Cod-style home in Walpole, which they purchased for $575,000.

“We could have made the numbers work with the original house,” said Sarah, who has since become a real estate agent for Coldwell Banker. “But being more conservative and making a decision that made sense for the present, rather than a hypothetical future, allowed us to have a smaller mortgage payment and keep other costs lower so we could travel when we want to and were able to do a renovation when we needed to. Giving ourselves the flexibility to make decisions as they came up because we hadn’t locked in that higher payment was the best decision.”

Robyn A. Friedman is an award-winning freelance writer who has covered real estate and personal finance for over two decades. Follow her @robynafriedman.

Those must be some extra sticky fingers.

The Boston Police Department is asking for the public’s assistance in identifying a man they say robbed a South End candy shop at knife point.

The man, captured on surveillance video, entered Madeleine’s Candy Shop at 47 Clarendon St. just before 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. He then walked up to an employee while holding “what appeared to be a knife,” according to a BPD statement, and demanded cash. He fled with an undisclosed amount of money.

Police describe the man as a white or light-skinned Hispanic man wearing a maroon sweatshirt, a gray wool cap, gray sweatpants, and a black mask.

Police ask that anyone who recognizes the man or who has information on the theft to contact detectives at (617) 343-5619 or to provide information anonymously through the CrimeStoppers tip line by calling 1-800-494-TIPS (8477), texting the word “TIP” to CRIME (27463), or through the online portal at Police.Boston.gov/CrimeStoppers/.

FBI recovers stolen 17th century Italian urn

Boston FBI agents recovered and returned a 17th century urn stolen from an Italian church.

“It’s incredibly exciting when the FBI can recover a piece of history that carries such deep emotional and cultural significance,” said Ted Docks, the special agent in charge of the Boston FBI. “After all, this reliquary urn is a tangible link to intense religious devotion and a connection to the generations who lived and prayed with it.

It represents the intersection of faith, history, and art – elements that are invaluable to the people of Italy and to humanity as a whole,” he continued. “This case highlights the power of international cooperation and our collective commitment to safeguard the world’s cultural treasures, no matter where they may be.”

The reliquary urn, which authorities say is a significant piece of Italian history and is registered with the Historical Artistic Heritage Items of the Italian Episcopal Conference, was stolen sometime in August 2022 from the church of San Michele Arcangelo di Cangiano.

The piece turned up in the hands of an antiques dealer in the American Northeast on Feb. 11, 2026. The dealer, who purchased it at some point from an Italian dealer, voluntarily relinquished the urn to the FBI, who gave it back to the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Boston-based FBI agents worked with the agency’s art crime team, its attaché in Rome and with the Italian Carabinieri, a paramilitary national police agency. The FBI’s art crime division was launched in 2004 and has recovered more than 20,000 items valued at more than $1 billion, according to the agency.

A reliquary is a medieval holder of a relic, according to Bowdoin College’s art history department, an item that “belonged to a saint … or, in many cases, the relics were believed to be body parts of a saint, truly powerful objects in the eyes of many medieval Christians.”

2 teens arrested for Haverhill mill fire

Two teens have been arrested on suspicion of setting fire to a Haverhill mill building earlier this week.

Firefighters responded to the mill at 14 Stevens St. at around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday after callers reported heavy smoke and flames. Firefighters arrived to “intense fire conditions that required a coordinated, multi-alarm response,” according to the Haverhill Police Department.

Crews worked the scene all day and were still fighting hot spots at least as late as 11:22 that night, when the firefighter union made its own post on the efforts.

The building was determined the next day to be a total loss, according to a statement issued by Mayor Melinda Barrett, Fire Chief Christopher Cesati, and city Building Inspector Thomas Bridgewater.

“Due to the intensity of the fire, the resulting heat severely compromised the structural steel supporting the four-story building,” the update stated. An independent structural engineer “determined that the building sustained a critical loss of structural integrity and will require full demolition.

That same day, Haverhill PD announced the arrest of 18-year-old city resident Isabella Sargent, who they charged with arson of a structure and conspiracy to commit arson.

On Thursday, police announced they had also arrested a second teen, this one a 17-year-old juvenile, on charges of arson and related offenses.

Police report that there were no civilian injuries related to the fire and that the incident remains under investigation.

The police ask that anyone with any information contact them by calling 978-373-1212 ext.1551.

Police search for Roxbury shooters

Boston police are looking for three males they say are responsible for shooting two other males on Kendall Street in Roxbury last month.

Police responded to 3 Kendall St. in Roxbury a little after 7 p.m. on March 29. There they found two male victims suffering from gunshot wounds. Both were treated at local hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries.

One suspect fled toward the parking lot behind that address while the other two fled toward where Kendall Street intersects with Shawmut Avenue.

Police on Wednesday released a surveillance still of the suspects and ask that if anyone recognizes them or has any information regarding the shooting to contact detectives at (617) 343-5619 or through the CrimeStoppers tip line. Crimestoppers information is detailed at the bottom of the first Crime Briefs entry.