Boston and Massachusetts high on "Nest Egg Index"

Boston-area residents are among the best in the nation when it comes to building a nest egg, according to financial services firm A.G. Edwards' annual "Nest Egg Index" released today.

But while the Boston metropolitan area and the state of Massachusetts both ranked high on the list, their status was largely propelling by gains in the housing market and wages that are relatively higher than in the rest of the country, two factors that are both eroding.

The Boston metropolitan area ranked 13th out of 500 cities, while Massachusetts ranked fifth among all states on the list, which considered 12 factors in determining how well residents of specific areas were accumulating assets for retirement.

Among those factors are homeownership, home values, mortgage values, ownership of investment and savings accounts and average incomes.

Boston's status was actually hurt because of the rate of homeownership here, which was lower than the national average because of the area's staggering cost of housing. It was helped, however, by home values for the same reason -- houses in Boston are worth more than elsewhere, giving many homeowners more equity than they would have in other regions.

Sophie Beckmann, a financial planning specialist for A.G. Edwards, said the rankings were important because they point out the parts of the country where people have better saving habits and those where conditions are tough for people to get ahead.

“Our goal here is to get people talking about saving because its so important to get people talking about building a nest egg. Really it’s more important than ever that people start saving for themselves, to start taking advantage of that 401k plan or IRA" because many employers no longer offer pension or other retirement plans, she said.
(By Keith Reed, Globe staff)