Boston’s Buyer-Friendly Neighborhoods
You can make $80,000 or even $100,000 in Boston and still wind up more of a housing market pauper than a prince. But it’s not all bad news.
You can make $80,000 or even $100,000 in Boston and still wind up more of a housing market pauper than a prince.
But before you head out and freak over the crazy prices at all those Back Bay open houses, it might be worth taking a look at what neighborhoods have listings that are affordable to middle class buyers and which don’t.
The bad news is that nearly half of Boston’s 15 neighborhoods are out of reach now for middle class buyers, with the number of listings affordable listings hovering in the low single or double digits, a new report by Boston housing officials recently found.
The good news is that Boston is a big city, with the priciest zip codes clustered in a geographically small area downtown, with a number of the city’s larger neighborhoods still open for business.
“That is a healthy salary,’’ said Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage agent Bill Aibel, of middle class buyers making $80,000 or $100,000 a year and still struggling to find an affordable home. “Most of us who work in this local market, Cambridge, Boston Brookline, most of us feel like we are dealing in a little bit of a bubble, even economically. There are a lot of strong buyers out there, a lot of investment money and a lot of foreign money. “
So how tough it is to buy in downtown Boston?
Well if you are making $80,000 a year, the number of listings in your price range is virtually nil in Back Bay and Beacon Hill, rising to a still miniscule 2.3 percent in the Fenway/Kenmore neighborhood and then to 2.9 percent in the South End, according to the Boston 2030 report. The North End and Downtown Crossing/Leather District/Midtown are even worse, with just 1.7 percent of all homes and condos within reach.
Even once blue-collar enclaves like Charlestown and South Boston are hardly affordable anymore, with just 3.3 and 4.7 percent of all listings affordable to someone making $80,000.
But don’t despair. It gets easier from here. Increasingly hot and hip Jamaica Plain isn’t easy either to crack for middle class buyers, but with 15 percent of listings within the right price range, you’ve got more of a shot, the report finds.
That number rises to 27 percent in vibrant and eclectic Allston-Brighton and 30 percent in solidly middle class West Roxbury, while Roslindale does even better, at 45 percent, the city report finds.
And even more opportunities await in Dorchester, the city’s largest neighborhood, and home of Mayor Marty Walsh, where 62 percent of listings are within reach. Hyde Park, where former Mayor Thomas M. Menino lives, is none too shabby at 64 percent, and is virtually tied with Roxbury, at 64 percent as well.
East Boston and Mattapan round out the picture, with 67 and 72 percent of all listings within reach of a middle class buyer making $80,000, according to Boston 2030.
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