Siding replacement cost in Boston: what owners paid (2023 survey)
Boston owners paid a median $8,571 for new or replacement siding: $3,571 above the U.S. median, tied for second-highest of 7 big metros (Census Bureau, 2023).
What Boston owners paid
$8,571
This is historical spending: work done in about 2021 to 2023 on owner-occupied homes, reported in the 2023 survey.
Margin of error ±$3,031: at 90% confidence the Boston median lies between $5,540 and $11,602.
How Boston compares
- U.S. median, same work
- $5,000
- Rank, highest first
- Tied at 2 of 7
Boston: $8,571. The big-metro medians run from $3,000 to $10,000.
8 of the 15 metros have no published figure for this work, so the rank counts the other 7.
What Boston siding permits declared
Boston’s building permits for siding on one- and two-family houses issued from October 2025 to September 2026 declared a median of $33,300; the middle half declared $20,000 to $50,000 (200 permits).
This is the cost of the work as the applicant estimated it on the permit, not an invoice or a final price. It counts every short-form siding permit on a one- or two-family house, the city’s own category for siding work, so some also take in windows, trim or gutters, and a few are repairs or one side of the house. Set it beside your written quotes.
The permits’ median is well above the $8,571 median from the Census survey shown above. The survey counts every job owners reported for work done in about 2021 to 2023, do-it-yourself work and small jobs included; these are permits issued from October 2025 to September 2026, each job priced by its applicant.
Source: City of Boston, Approved Building Permits (Analyze Boston), read .
- San Francisco$10,000
- Boston$8,571
- Seattle$8,571
- Chicago$8,000
- Washington DC$6,000
- Houston$3,700
- Dallas$3,000
No published figure: Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Riverside.
What it covers
New and replacement siding, every material and house size together.
The Census category is “Siding” within “Exterior Additions and Replacements”: what Boston-area homeowners told the Census Bureau they paid, every size of job together.
Before you compare quotes
Ask every contractor to price the same scope, in writing. Does the quote identify cladding, trim, openings and any concealed-wall repair?
Then put the quotes in the matching quote worksheet to see each one's scope beside its price.