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Real Estate Prices & Overview

Back Bay East median real estate price is $2,428,602, which is more expensive than 91.0% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts and 95.7% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.

The average rental price in Back Bay East is currently $4,816, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 90.4% 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 23.6%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 92.0% of all U.S. neighborhoods. A relatively large percentage of housing here is seasonally occupied (16.7%). 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 97.2% 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 90.3% 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 99.7% of U.S. neighborhoods. In this way, this neighborhood truly stands out.

Also, think about the people you know personally. How many of them would purchase box seats to opening night at the symphony? How many of them regularly attend gallery openings, or are the first to reserve tickets to opening night at the ballet? If they're like most of us, they don't do any of these things. But if you're among an exclusive crowd of wealthy and refined patrons of the arts, then you'll feel right at home in the Back Bay East neighborhood: a neighborhood in which more "urban sophisticates" live than 98.4% of neighborhoods across the U.S. Here, your neighbors are defined as having urbane tastes in literature, music, live theatre and the arts. They are wealthy, educated, travel in style, and live a big city lifestyle whether or not they live in or near a big city. In addition to being an excellent choice for urban sophisticates, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for young, single professionals.

Modes of Transportation

In the Back Bay East neighborhood, walking to work is a real option for many. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research reveals walking to and from work is the chosen way to commute for 38.5% of residents here. This is a higher proportion of walking commuters than we found in 99.6% of American neighborhoods. Get ready to put on your walking shoes if you move here!

Also, in the Back Bay East neighborhood, many people's commute means walking from the bedroom to the home office. NeighborhoodScout's analysis found that 35.1% of residents worked from home. This may not seem like a large number, but Scout's research shows that this is a higher percentage of people working from home than 96.1% of the neighborhoods in America. Often people who work from home are engaged in the creative or technological economy, such as is found in areas around Boston, and in Silicon Valley. Other times, people may be engaged in other businesses like trading stocks from home, or running a small beauty salon.

Occupations

The Back Bay East neighborhood has a higher proportion of its residents employed as executives, managers and professionals than 99.3% of the neighborhoods in America. In fact, 82.1% 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.

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, one of the really unique and interesting things about the look and setting of the Back Bay East neighborhood is that it is almost entirely dominated by large apartment buildings, such as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments. 84.6% of the residential real estate here is classified as such. This puts this neighborhood on the map as having a higher proportion of large apartment buildings than 97.4% of all neighborhoods in America.

Furthermore, if you find historic homes and neighborhoods attractive, you love the details, the history, and the charm, then you are sure to be interested in this neighborhood. With 75.3% of the residential real estate in the Back Bay East neighborhood built no later than 1939, and some built considerably earlier, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of historic residences than 99.3% of all neighborhoods in America. In this regard, this neighborhood truly stands out as special.

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. 36.6% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.8% of U.S. neighborhoods.

Diversity

Did you know that the Back Bay East neighborhood has more Russian and Finnish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 5.1% of this neighborhood's residents have Russian ancestry and 1.9% have Finnish ancestry.

Back Bay East is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 3.0% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak German/Yiddish at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.0% 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 97.2% 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.

The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.

In the Back Bay East neighborhood, 82.1% 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 14.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions (3.7%), and 2.5% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

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 74.5% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese, German/Yiddish, French and Spanish.

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.

In the Back Bay East neighborhood in Boston, MA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (20.4%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (12.4%), and residents who report Asian roots (12.1%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (11.6%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (8.8%), among others. In addition, 16.0% 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 (35.4% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (38.5%) 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 (16.1%) and 6.8% 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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