Bank Statement Loans in Massachusetts

Why Bank Statement Loans Matter in Massachusetts’ Market

Massachusetts is one of the most expensive states in the country to buy a home, with the steepest demand in Greater Boston, MetroWest, and the Cambridge-Somerville corridor. Tight inventory and a statewide housing shortage keep competition high across many parts of the state. For self-employed borrowers, qualifying can be an added challenge, because conventional loans are built around W-2 employees and penalize business owners and contractors who write off expenses on their tax returns.

Here’s why bank statement loans make sense for self-employed borrowers in Massachusetts:

• Massachusetts has a deep self-employed and small-business base. The state is home to more than 756,000 small businesses, which represent 99.5% of all businesses in Massachusetts. Self-employed workers and contractors make up a large share of that base, especially across professional, scientific, and technical services, construction and the trades, healthcare, real estate, and hospitality.
• Write-offs make qualifying harder than it should be. The same deductions that keep a consultant, specialty contractor, or private-practice provider healthy at tax time shrink the taxable income a conventional underwriter sees. IRS data puts net income at just 20-23% of business receipts. Griffin Funding counts 50% of those same deposits by default, giving the typical self-employed borrower close to 2x the buying power a tax return alone would show.
• Higher prices make qualifying income matter more. With the average Massachusetts single-family home value around $694,177, well above the national figure, and an effective property tax rate of 1.00% on top of it, self-employed buyers often need to qualify for larger loans to stay competitive. Conventional underwriting based on deflated taxable income can leave them short; bank statement loans qualify you on real deposits, so your true cash flow determines how much home you can afford.

Sources: Zillow home value data (July 2026); U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, 2025 State Profile; IRS Statistics of Income (Nonfarm Sole Proprietorships, 2008-2015; SOI Bulletin, Spring 2025).

How Massachusetts Bank Statement Loans Work

Massachusetts business owners and contractors who write off expenses often show a taxable income far below what they actually earn. This tends to leave them underqualified on paper for conventional loans, even when their cash flow tells a different story.

Bank statement loans qualify you based on cash flow shown in bank statements, rather than traditional tax-return income.

Griffin Funding reviews 12 to 24 months of bank statements and calculates income from actual deposit history. The percentage of deposits that count toward your income depends on whether you use personal or business bank statements. Personal statements count 100% of deposits; business statements typically apply a 50% expense factor, which can go as low as 10% depending on your business type.

To qualify for a bank statement loan, you’ll need:

• Credit score: 620 minimum
• Self-employment history: 2 years minimum (or 1 year if you’ve stayed in the same industry)
• Down payment: 10% with a 680+ credit score; 20% minimum with a 620-679 score
• Bank statements: 12 or 24 months of personal or business statements showing consistent deposits
• Property types: Single-family homes, multi-family homes, townhomes, condos, manufactured homes, and rural properties are all eligible
• LLC ownership: Properties can be held in an LLC

Prior bankruptcy requires a two-year waiting period before applying.

View Bank Statement Loan Requirements

Today’s Bank Statement Mortgage Loan Rates in Massachusetts

As a national direct-to-consumer lender, Griffin Funding cuts out the broker markup and keeps non-qualified mortgage rates competitive. Your specific rate depends on your credit score, down payment, loan amount, and buydown points.

Massachusetts Housing Markets for Self-Employed Buyers

From the Boston, Worcester, and Springfield metros with the most economic activity to lower-cost Berkshires and South Coast cities and premium coastal and college towns, Massachusetts has real options for self-employed buyers at every price point. Here’s where borrowers are buying across the state.

Major Metros

• Boston: Boston is the country’s densest concentration of hospitals and life sciences research, where healthcare and social assistance account for more than 18% of total employment, and five of the ten largest employers are hospitals. The Boston area is home to 25 hospitals, 20 community health centers, and more than 500 life sciences companies. Hospitals, labs, and research centers all contract out facilities work, IT, lab services, and specialty construction regularly, so an independent contractor here is bidding into institutional budgets, rather than chasing one-off clients. Boston asks more in monthly business deposits than any market on this page, so give yourself a few strong years in business before shopping here.
• Worcester: Worcester turned its manufacturing base into a biotech and advanced-manufacturing cluster, built around The Reactory, a 46-acre campus that houses a $300 million WuXi Biologics facility and 60-plus other biotech firms. Abbvie, UMass Memorial Health, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and College of the Holy Cross remain the city’s largest employers, providing steady institutional work throughout the city. Worcester needs roughly 45% less in monthly business deposits than Boston while sitting an hour west of it.
• Springfield: Springfield is a major regional center in western Massachusetts, located on the Connecticut River about 78 to 90 miles from Boston, depending on the route. One of the region’s largest employers, Baystate Health, employs roughly 13,000 people across western Massachusetts. Other major companies with a Springfield presence include: Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, Bank of America, Mercy Medical Center and Sisters of Providence Health System, and Northeast Utilities. That range of major employers represent steady contracts in facilities work, IT, and specialty services year-round, so a self-employed contractor can build a client base across industries, instead of depending on any single company. Springfield asks for the lowest monthly business deposits of any on this page. 

Affordable Markets

• Pittsfield: Pittsfield is the largest city in the Berkshires, a former General Electric town that rebuilt around healthcare, tourism, plastics manufacturing, insurance, and defense technology instead. General Dynamics Mission Systems employs about 1,500 people here, while Berkshire Health Systems employs another 4,000. The Berkshire Innovation Center, a growth hub for technology-focused companies headquartered in town, encourages an ever deeper and richer client base, so technical and trade work here isn’t riding on one employer. Pittsfield runs essentially even with Springfield at the bottom of this page for monthly business deposits.
• Chicopee: Chicopee sits on the Connecticut River just north of Springfield, close enough to share that labor market while running its own economy, which spans several major industries including government, education, manufacturing, food service, and finance and insurance. Westover Air Reserve Base is the city’s largest employer with more than 2,700 military and civilian personnel, contributing roughly $195 million to the western Massachusetts economy in a single fiscal year. Trinity Health of New England and logistics operations off I-90 and I-391 create additional demand. Base contracts, hospital facilities work, and distribution-center maintenance are three separate pipelines a self-employed operator can work at once. Chicopee needs the third-lowest monthly business deposits on this page.
• Westfield: Westfield is a city of over 40,000 in western Massachusetts with a military presence, a state university, and a strong industrial and warehousing sector in the same small footprint. In June 2026, the first F-35 stealth fighter jet arrived at Barnes Air National Guard Base, a roughly $200 million, three-year buildout that is expected to help create about 2,100 jobs and deepen Westfield’s ties to the regional defense economy. That range of institutions generates facilities and trade contracts in a city small enough that you’re not competing with dozens of vendors for them. Westfield asks more than Chicopee but noticeably less than Worcester in monthly business deposits.

Lifestyle Markets

• Northampton: Northampton is a small city with an outsized cultural life, a downtown of independent bookstores, concert halls, and restaurants that exists because five colleges sit within a short drive. Smith College has been here since 1871 and belongs to the Five College Consortium alongside Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and UMass Amherst. The city is home to over 1,200 businesses employing more than 17,000 people. Northampton’s academic density means creative and professional work has an actual local market here, not just remote clients, while Cooley Dickinson Hospital adds healthcare services, facilities, and trade demand year-round. Northampton sits at the midpoint of this page for monthly business deposits.
• Salem: Salem is a historic seaport 30 minutes north of Boston by commuter rail or ferry, and every October it becomes one of the most visited small cities in the country. During this month, the city hosts Haunted Happenings, a month-long Halloween festival built on the city’s Salem Witch Trials history that fills downtown with parades, psychic fairs, and haunted attractions. More than a million visitors came in October 2025 alone, and that annual surge generates over $140 million in tourism spending. That volume keeps downtown Salem’s storefronts near full, a sign that retail shops, restaurants, and tour businesses can count on steady year-round foot traffic, though it also means open space is scarce and rarely sits empty for long if you’re trying to grab a lease. Salem needs more in monthly business deposits than every market on this page except Barnstable and Boston.
• Barnstable: Barnstable is the largest town on Cape Cod, and unlike the seasonal villages around it, roughly 50,000 people live here year-round. Tourism is a major economic drive here, but it isn’t the only source of work. Office and administrative support, sales, food service, and transportation roles all employ significant shares of the workforce too. Cape Cod Healthcare, Cape Cod’s leading healthcare provider and Barnstable’s top employer, employs about 5,000 people. Cape Cod Community College and Cape Air, or Nantucket Airline, are Barnstable’s other top employers. That gives a self-employed tradesperson or service provider steady work through the off-season, even once the beachfront restaurants shutter and the summer crowds are gone. Barnstable asks the second-highest monthly business deposits on this page, behind only Boston.

Free Tools for Self-Employed Borrowers in Massachusetts

Run the numbers before you commit. These free tools give you an instant read on your buying power and the Massachusetts market.

• Bank Statement Loan Calculator: Quickly estimate how much home you could afford with a Massachusetts bank statement loan. 
• Bank Statement Loan Refinance Calculator: See how much you could potentially save using a bank statement refinance loan in Massachusetts. 
• Home Affordability Calculator: Get a better idea of how much home you may be able to afford based on your financial profile and mortgage details. 
• Housing Market Insights: Explore estimated values, transaction history, and appreciation trends for properties across the state of Massachusetts. 

Apply for a Bank Statement Home Loan in Massachusetts

Self-employed borrowers with non-traditional income still have options to purchase property in Massachusetts. With a bank statement home loan, you can qualify for up to $4.5 million in financing, no tax returns or pay stubs required. Down payments start at 10% for qualified borrowers.

Griffin Funding has helped self-employed borrowers, small business owners, freelancers, tradespeople, and independent contractors qualify for bank statement mortgage loans across Massachusetts. We lend throughout the entire state, from Boston, Worcester, and Springfield to Cape Cod, Salem, and Northampton, and the value markets of Pittsfield, Fall River, and New Bedford.

Reach out today to learn more about how to qualify for a mortgage in Massachusetts if you’re self-employed. If you’re ready to get pre-approved and lock in your rate, get started online.

• Justin Guthrie, Griffin Funding Massachusetts Loan Officer | NMLS# 2328091
• Jeffrey Elizalde, Griffin Funding Massachusetts Loan Officer | NMLS# 375393
• Joshua Miller, Griffin Funding Massachusetts Loan Officer | NMLS# 1640013
• PJ Vinal, Griffin Funding Massachusetts Loan Officer | NMLS# 2283532