This four-bedroom Cape in Mattapan, listed with ReMax Affiliates of West Roxbury, is on the market for $229,900.

People searching for a home in some of Boston’s less expensive neighborhoods are experiencing sticker shock these days.

Several of Boston’s traditionally more affordable neighborhoods experienced the biggest increases in single-family and condominium prices over the last five years.

While home prices are still highest in tony Hub neighborhoods like Beacon Hill and Back Bay, the percentage increases in median prices were highest in places like Roxbury, East Boston, Mattapan and Dorchester.

According to statistics compiled by Warren Information Services, median single-family home prices increased 231 percent in Roxbury from 1996 to 2001 based on sales transactions during the first nine months of those years. The median price for a single-family home in Roxbury escalated from $65,000 during the first three quarters of 1996 to $214,950 through September this year.

During the same period, East Boston’s median single-family home prices jumped 167 percent, followed by Mattapan at 153 percent. Those prices outpaced the overall single-family median price increase in Boston between 1996 and 2001, a 104 percent shift to $255,000 from $125,000.

That trend generally holds true when comparing sales from the first three quarters of 2000 and 2001, according to WIS statistics. The biggest percentage increase in median prices for single-family homes – 48 percent – during that timeframe occurred in Roxbury, followed by Jamaica Plain (34 percent) and Dorchester (26 percent).

WIS, a sister company of Banker & Tradesman, collects sales statistics from registries of deeds statewide.

According to WIS figures, condominium prices exhibited similar patterns, experiencing the sharpest increases in Mattapan, Dorchester and East Boston from 1996 to 2001.

Mattapan’s median condominium prices escalated 501 percent – from $20,000 during the first nine months of 1996 to $120,125 during the same months this year. Dorchester’s condominium prices jumped 268 percent from $40,000 to $147,000 during the same period, while East Boston saw its prices rise 255 percent from $28,500 to $101,250. The city as a whole saw its condominium prices rise 89 percent to a median of $250,000 in 2001 from a 1996 price of $132,500.

Causes and Concerns
Statistics from the first three quarters of 2000 and 2001 also show that Mattapan beat out all other neighborhoods when it came to the percentage increase in condominium prices. The median price for a Mattapan condominium shot up 50 percent to $120,125 during the first three quarters of this year from just $80,000 a year ago. Hyde Park and Dorchester, with increases of 36 and 34 percent, respectively, also were among the top three neighborhoods with the highest price hikes.

Prices are outrageous, said Derric Small, who bought his first home in Roxbury three years ago and has lived in the area most of his life.

Small, the assistant director for the city’s office of neighborhood services, said he gets calls daily from people complaining about housing costs in Roxbury and the surrounding neighborhoods. Some of Small’s friends and relatives, unable to afford rising rents and home prices, have had to move to outlying cities like Brockton and Attleboro.

At the root of these tremendous price increases is a simple rule of supply and demand, said Small, a former neighborhood coordinator for the city. The housing supply can’t keep up with consumer demand because there isn’t much land available for development, he said.

Real estate agents and community leaders see other reasons for the price hikes. They maintain that the improvements and efforts being made by city and community groups are making once-overlooked neighborhoods more attractive to people who are priced out of more expensive areas.

Crime is down in many of these traditionally lower-income neighborhoods, businesses have opened up and existing shops and businesses have been revamped with the help of city grants, according to community leaders. Also, homeowners are getting financial assistance to rehabilitate long-neglected properties. Add to this the fact that the city and state have special first-time homebuyer programs that create more eligible buyers, and it leads to upward price pressure.

A lot of it has to do with the fact that the city has gone through huge revitalization programs for these areas, said Charissa Pemper of Re/Max Affiliates in West Roxbury, explaining the price increases.

Pemper said a mix of younger families and investors are snatching up property in these neighborhoods.

Out of 32 Dorchester properties on the sales market last week, the average price was $250,000, based on multiple listing service data.

While prices are rising, one attraction that remains to such Boston neighborhoods is they offer much more space – three to six bedrooms, instead of the two- or three-bedroom homes more often found in higher priced areas in the city.

You do get considerably more house for the money [in Roxbury and Dorchester] than you would in Roslindale or West Roxbury, said Pemper.

Eve A. Moss of Clarendon Real Estate Group in Boston said there’s no simple answer to explain the steep rise in prices.

I think it’s a combination of factors. I don’t think it’s any one thing, said Moss, who is a co-managing principal of the firm.

Moss said the price increases are part of a natural real estate cycle, but also reflect the city’s investment in the neighborhoods and the low interest rates and programs that have helped more people become first-time homebuyers.

Many homes in areas like Dorchester’s Ashmont Hill and Melville Park, and Roxbury’s Fort Hill, have historical and architecturally significant homes, said Moss, making these neighborhoods even more desirable.

Last week, Moss pointed to a home that sold for less than $150,000 about two years ago and now, after moderate renovations, is on the market for more than $250,000.

Some of the very low prices recorded in 1995 and 1996 – like the $20,000 median condominium price in Mattapan – may be the result of foreclosures, said Moss. Today’s prices are more normal and representative of a competitive real estate market, she said.

Longtime residents who can’t afford the rising prices and rents have expressed anger, frustration and despair, said City Councilor Charles Turner, who represents lower Roxbury and parts of Dorchester.

Ironically, the work that the community has done to strengthen and build up the community is … driving out some of those same community members and people who worked so hard, said Turner.

The price squeeze extends to renters, not just buyers, in these neighborhoods.

Much of Roxbury’s housing stock consists of triple-decker homes that are being purchased at high prices by people who then charge pricey rents to cover the mortgage, according to Turner.

According to a report last year by the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development, the biggest percentage increase in median rents from year to year occurred in Roxbury, Dorchester and East Boston.

The median monthly rent in Roxbury increased 41 percent to $1,200 in the third quarter of 1999 from $850 during the same period in 1998, according the DND report. Meanwhile, in Dorchester, rents rose 23 percent, and East Boston experienced a 21 percent rent hike.

The future may bring some relief, but not too much, according to some observers.

Re/Max’s Pemper said there is likely to be a leveling off of prices but not a tremendous reduction in that area.

The demand is still exceeding the supply. However, we are seeing marketing times increasing and more negotiability in pricing and terms, said Clarendon’s Moss.