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Real Estate Prices & Overview

Back Bay East median real estate price is $3,345,093, which is more expensive than 97.2% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts and 98.4% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.

The average rental price in Back Bay East is currently $5,114, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 92.6% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts.

Back Bay East is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Boston, Massachusetts.

Back Bay East real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) apartment complexes/high-rise apartments and small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is occupied by a mixture of owners and renters. Many of the residences in the Back Bay East neighborhood are relatively historic, built no later than 1939, and in some cases, quite a bit earlier. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.

Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Back Bay East. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 27.9%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 93.7% of all U.S. neighborhoods. A relatively large percentage of housing here is seasonally occupied (20.7%). This can occur in vacation areas, and occasionally it is also found in neighborhoods that are primarily filled with college students, as some apartments could be vacant when school is not in session. If you live here year round, you may find that a number of buildings in your neighborhood are actually empty.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in Boston, the Back Bay East neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

People

Wealth makes most things in life easier, and a few things harder. If you are wealthy and enjoy keeping up with the Jones', this neighborhood will interest you. In fact, according to NeighborhoodScout's research, the Back Bay East neighborhood is wealthier than 95.3% of the neighborhoods in the United States. Residents here are truly in a unique situation even when compared to other Americans, based on the sheer amount of wealth concentrated here. Even in times of economic downturn, residents of this neighborhood, as a group, suffered less and recovered more quickly. This is indeed a stand-out characteristic of this neighborhood. As one would expect in a considerably wealthy neighborhood such as this, Back Bay East also has one of the lowest ratings of child poverty in the nation.

In addition, do you like to read, write, and learn? Are you curious about the world? If so, this neighborhood may be a good fit for you. NeighborhoodScout's research revealed that a full 92.3% of the adults living in the Back Bay East neighborhood have earned at least a bachelor's degree. This is a higher rate than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.9% of U.S. neighborhoods. In this way, this neighborhood truly stands out.

Also, if you're a regular supporter of the arts and enjoy outings to the theatre, weekend boutique-ing, or even a finely aged wine with dinner, than you're in good company with the people of the Back Bay East neighborhood. This neighborhood is uniquely immersed with more "urban sophisticates" than 98.4% of neighborhoods across the country. The people here truly stand out as a class among their own. They are an exclusive community characterized by refined tastes, cultural inclinations, and the means to live well. Urban sophisticates live a big city lifestyle, whether or not they live in or near a big city. They are educated executives or managers by week, and serial patrons of the arts by weekend. If this lifestyle pertains to you, than you'll certainly feel right at home in the Back Bay East neighborhood. In addition to being an excellent choice for urban sophisticates, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for young, single professionals.

Occupations

The Back Bay East neighborhood has a higher proportion of its residents employed as executives, managers and professionals than 99.7% of the neighborhoods in America. In fact, 84.1% of the employed people here make a living as an executive, a manager, or other professional. With such a high concentration, this truly shapes the character of this neighborhood, and to a large degree defines what this neighborhood is about.

Modes of Transportation

More people in Back Bay East choose to walk to work each day (35.2%) than almost any neighborhood in America. If you are attracted to the idea of being able to walk to work, this neighborhood could be a good choice.

Also, in the Back Bay East neighborhood, 13.3% of people ride the train to work each day. This is a very high percentage compared to most places. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this is a higher level of train ridership than in 96.1% of the neighborhoods in America.

Real Estate

Being a walkable neighborhood can help increase property values for the simple reason that people enjoy it and value it. To put it plainly, despite our love affair with the automobile, American's enjoy taking to the streets, sidewalks, paths, and courtyards of a place to get a coffee, relax, and take in the sights and sounds. And, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive and first quantitative walkable score index, the Back Bay East neighborhood is one of the most walkable neighborhoods in America.

In addition, the real estate in the Back Bay East neighborhood really stands out in the way it looks for a unique reason: this neighborhood has a higher proportion of apartment complexes or high-rise apartments than nearly every neighborhood in the country. Most neighborhoods are a mixture of real estate and housing types, but here it is almost entirely dominated by big apartment buildings and complexes. In fact, 84.1% of the real estate here is classified as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments, which is more than is found in 97.3% of American neighborhoods.

Furthermore, do you watch 'This Old House' on Public Television? Do you love the idea of fixing up a Colonial or Victorian era home, complete with the charm of yesteryear? Do you like to stroll or drive streets lined with gracious older residences? If you found yourself nodding yes to any of these questions, you are going to be interested in this unique neighborhood. The Back Bay East neighborhood stands out on a national scale for the sheer concentration of historic residences it contains: 76.6% of the residential real estate here was built from 1939 or earlier, some much earlier. This is a greater concentration of historic homes than 99.4% of the neighborhoods in the United States.

Car Ownership

We Americans love our cars. Not only are they a necessity for most Americans due to the shape of our neighborhoods and the distances between where we live, work, shop, and go to school, but we also fancy them. As a result, most households in America have one, two, or three cars. But NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis shows that the Back Bay East neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. 28.7% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.

Diversity

Did you know that the Back Bay East neighborhood has more Finnish and Russian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.0% of this neighborhood's residents have Finnish ancestry and 5.5% have Russian ancestry.

Back Bay East is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 6.3% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Chinese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 96.2% of the neighborhoods in America.

The Neighbors

There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.

The neighbors in the Back Bay East neighborhood in Boston are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 95.3% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America's neighborhoods.

A neighborhood is far different if it is dominated by enlisted military personnel rather than people who earn their living by farming. It is also different if most of the neighbors are clerical support or managers. What is wonderful is the sheer diversity of neighborhoods, allowing you to find the type that fits your lifestyle and aspirations.

In the Back Bay East neighborhood, 84.1% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 10.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (4.1%).

Languages

The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the Back Bay East neighborhood is English, spoken by 77.5% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese and Spanish.

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.

In the Back Bay East neighborhood in Boston, MA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (16.7%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (12.7%), and residents who report Italian roots (9.6%), and some of the residents are also of Asian ancestry (9.5%), along with some English ancestry residents (8.0%), among others. In addition, 16.2% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.

Getting to Work

Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in Back Bay East neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (37.1% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (35.2%) hop out the door and walk to work to get to work. In addition, quite a number also drive alone in a private automobile to get to work (22.9%) and 13.3% of residents also take the train for their daily commute. This is a special neighborhood for the number of people who walk to work. Combining exercise, low cost, and reduced pollution, plus the chance to see your neighbors, walking to work is fairly uncommon in America but likely to increase as people try to reduce their dependence on automobiles, and this neighborhood offers that opportunity today.


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