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Real Estate Prices & Overview

Merrimac St / Portland St median real estate price is $963,619, which is more expensive than 79.3% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts and 90.3% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.

The average rental price in Merrimac St / Portland St is currently $6,855, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 99.7% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts.

Merrimac St / Portland St is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Boston, Massachusetts.

Merrimac St / Portland St real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to large (four, five or more bedroom) apartment complexes/high-rise apartments and small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood are newer, built in 2000 or more recently. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.

Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Merrimac St / Portland St. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 27.8%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 93.6% of all U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, most vacant housing here is vacant year round. This can sometimes be the case in neighborhoods dominated by new construction that is not yet occupied. But often neighborhoods with vacancy rates this high are places that can be plagued by a protracted vacancy problem. If you live here, you may find that a number of buildings in your neighborhood are actually empty.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.

People

If you come to know the people here, you will recognize that you're in the company of one of the wealthiest communities in the nation. In fact, a mere 2.4% of America's neighborhoods are wealthier than the Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood. Real estate here is exceedingly well-maintained, and similarly, tends to maintain its value over time. The cars driven are mostly luxury brands like Mercedes, Audi, BMW, and Lexus. If the public schools aren't up to snuff, the residents of this neighborhood preferentially send their children to private preparatory schools. Vacation to Disney? Yes, but equally popular are summers in Europe. As one would expect in a considerably wealthy neighborhood such as this, Merrimac St / Portland St 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 81.4% of the adults living in the Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood have earned at least a bachelor's degree. This is a higher rate than NeighborhoodScout found in 98.2% of U.S. neighborhoods. In this way, this neighborhood truly stands out.

Also, if you're looking for an active nightlife with lots of opportunities to flirt and find romance, then you probably won't have to go too far from the Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood to find it. Only 2.1% of the neighborhoods in the country have a larger proportion of young, single professionals. The nightlife may not be reminiscent of a "Sex and the City" episode, but the people who live here find friendship, romance, fun, and socializing readily available. In addition to being an excellent choice for young, single professionals, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for urban sophisticates.

Real Estate

The Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood is very unique in that it has one of the highest proportions of one, two, or no bedroom real estate of any neighborhood in America. Most neighborhoods have a mixture of home or apartment sizes from small to large, but here the concentration of studios and other small living spaces is at near-record heights. With 99.2% of the real estate here of this small size, this most assuredly is a notable feature that makes this neighborhood unique, along with just a handful of other neighborhoods in the U.S. that share this characteristic.

In addition, one of the really unique and interesting things about the look and setting of the Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood is that it is almost entirely dominated by large apartment buildings, such as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments. 96.6% 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 99.3% of all neighborhoods in America.

Furthermore, if you like the look and ambience of new homes and newly built neighborhoods, you will love the Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood. A whopping 93.5% of the homes and other residential real estate here were built after 1999, which is a higher proportion of new homes then you will find in 99.2% of the neighborhoods in the U.S. Everything here just feels new. In fact, the concentration of newer homes here is so great that they completely dominate the landscape. In most neighborhoods, there is a mixture of ages of residential real estate, but here it is almost completely built during one time frame: 2000 through today.

Also of note, 93.8% of the real estate in the Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood is occupied by renters, which is nearly the highest rate of renter occupancy of any neighborhood in America.

Finally, the Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood is very densely populated compared to most U.S. neighborhoods. In fact, with 34,032 persons per square mile in the neighborhood, it is more packed with people than 97.4% of the nation's neighborhoods.

Occupations

The Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood has a higher proportion of its residents employed as executives, managers and professionals than 99.1% of the neighborhoods in America. In fact, 80.2% 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 Merrimac St / Portland St choose to walk to work each day (21.2%) 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, a unique way of commuting is simply not to. And in the Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood, analysis shows that 32.6% of the residents work from home, avoiding a commute altogether. This may not seem like a large number, but it is a higher proportion of people working from home than is found in 98.0% of the neighborhoods in the United States. One thing NeighborhoodScout's research reveals is that the wealthier and/or more isolated the neighborhood, the greater the proportion of residents who choose to work from home.

Finally, if you like to ride the train to work, this neighborhood may be for you. NeighborhoodScout's research revealed that 17.0% of the Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood's commuters ride the train to and from work each day, which is more than we found in 96.8% of America's neighborhoods.

Car Ownership

American households most often have a car, and regularly they have two or three. But households in the Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood buck this trend. 37.6% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.9% of U.S. neighborhoods.

Diversity

Did you know that the Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood has more Portuguese and Brazilian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 4.6% of this neighborhood's residents have Portuguese ancestry and 1.8% have Brazilian ancestry.

Merrimac St / Portland St is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 2.4% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Japanese at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.2% of the neighborhoods in America.

Migration / Stability

The freedom of moving to new places versus the comfort of home. How much and how often people move not only can create diverse and worldly neighborhoods, but simultaneously it can produce a loss of intimacy with one's surroundings and a lack of connectedness to one's neighbors. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research has identified this neighborhood as unique with regard to the transience of its populace. In the Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood, a greater proportion of the residents living here today did not live here five years ago than is found in 97.0% of U.S. Neighborhoods. This neighborhood, more than almost any other in America, has new residents from other areas.

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 Merrimac St / Portland St 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 97.6% 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 Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood, 80.2% 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 12.0% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (6.3%).

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 Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood is English, spoken by 78.2% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese.

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 Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood in Boston, MA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (22.8%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (21.4%), and residents who report English roots (14.4%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (5.2%), along with some Portuguese ancestry residents (4.6%), among others. In addition, 16.3% 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 Merrimac St / Portland St neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (36.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (27.3%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also hop out the door and walk to work to get to work (21.2%) and 17.0% of residents also take the train for their daily commute. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.


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