Boston’s bargain neighborhoods aren’t the bargains they used to be.
The red-hot real estate market may be exemplified by multimillion-dollar home sales and pricey rents in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill, but it’s the city’s traditionally low-and moderate income neighborhoods that are feeling the effects of the market most, community members say.
Statistics show that while median rent and home sale prices remain the highest in the affluent neighborhoods, the percentage increases from year to year are higher in areas like Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Dorchester and Roslindale.
According to a report from the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development, the median rent price in Boston rose 2 percent in the third quarter of 1999 compared to the same time period in 1998. Rents in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill remained stable, while Allston-Brighton and the South End saw increases of 4 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
The median monthly rent in Roxbury, according DND statistics, rose 41 percent to $1,200 from $850, and Dorchester and East Boston rents jumped 23 percent and 21 percent respectively. Roslindale saw an 11 percent rent hike, while Jamaica Plain’s rents rose 9 percent.
Real estate agents and community leaders alike say residents have traditionally turned to these neighborhoods for lower-priced housing. But as places like Cambridge and the Back Bay get pricier, more people are flocking to the neighborhoods, driving up demand as well as prices. And some interviewed say they worry about the effect this surge in prices is having on long-time neighborhood residents who may be forced to move away from the city to find affordable housing.
Before, if one neighborhood got too expensive, you could usually find a place in one of the other neighborhoods, said Kathy Brown of the Boston Tenant Coalition, but what I see now is almost all of the neighborhoods are impacted by the housing crisis. It’s like a domino effect.
The lower end neighborhoods are catching up. It’s long overdue, said Bonnie Glenn of Century 21 Bonnie Glenn Assoc. in Dorchester. The neighborhoods were underpriced for a while relative to the rest of the city.
People are being totally priced out of the Back Bay, Brookline and Cambridge, so they’re coming here, said Linda Burnett, a Realtor with Innovative Moves in Jamaica Plain and Roslindale. Even though prices are high now, it’s more affordable than in other neighborhoods. It’s affordable by less and less, but it’s still affordable.
Mostly, people are coming here because they’re being priced out of other neighborhoods, said Katherine Mallory, a community organizer with the Codman Square Community Development Corp. in Dorchester. It used to be in Jamaica Plain; now it’s happening in Dorchester. It’s very frustrating.
While most agreed the so-called domino effect has played a significant part in price hikes, some attributed the qualities of the neighborhoods as factors that have drawn in more people.
We’ve gone up at higher percentages because we offer things that are attractive to people like kettle ponds, more green space and good access to [public transportation], said Bob Shortsleeve, broker/owner of Pleasant Realty Group in Jamaica Plain. We have a rich housing stock and a good rental stock that allows people to come into the neighborhood.
Dorchester has come a long way in the past few years, Glenn said. There have been a lot of improvements to the downtown, we’re in close proximity to downtown Boston, and the services here are great.
Gentrification
The percentage increase in median sales prices of single-family homes in East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan and Roslindale all outpaced the citywide increase of 15 percent in 1999 compared to 1998. For two-family homes, median price increases in Dorchester, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain and Roslindale all equaled or exceeded the 12 percent citywide price increases.
Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Roslindale and Roxbury were all at or above the citywide median price increase of 23 percent for three-family homes. Roslindale in particular saw a 44 percent jump between 1998 and 1999, from $182,750 to $262,500.
Those higher home prices, according to Burnett, are directly affecting the higher rental costs.
Because the prices are so high, rents are going up from where they were before, Burnett said.
I can say that prices in Roslindale have gone up something like 25 percent in the last six months, she said. If someone buys a house with rental units and they’re paying that much more for it, they’re crazy not to jump the rents up.
The effects of those rent increases, according to some, is an onslaught of gentrification as the neighborhoods that were once refuges for those seeking affordable housing within the city’s borders are now becoming off-limits to some low-income renters.
There’s been a significant rise in gentrification, Mallory said. It varies. Some landlords are raising their rents more slowly, some do it quicker, but they’re raising the rents so people can’t stay.
In addition to rising prices, renters have faced a dearth of available apartments. According to the DND, the number of advertised apartments in the first three quarters of 1999 dropped 43 percent from the same period in 1998 as the city has near record low residential vacancy rates.
It’s getting very hard to find an apartment, let alone an inexpensive one, Glenn said, adding that several apartment buildings she works with have had 100 percent occupancy rates for several years.
There’s a scarcity of rental housing, Burnett said, especially now with all the condos. They were former rentals, but now they’re being sold. Even condos that were less desirable – in big brick buildings along busy streets – are being sold. The long-term renters are being pushed out.
Shortsleeve said it’s an unfortunate trend that’s happening across the country, not just in the Boston market. It’s part of the economic equation, it prices people out. It’s starting to happen in Roslindale. People can’t afford [Jamaica Plain], so they’re going to Roslindale now. Don’t ask me where those people are going though.
Mallory, who is planning to conduct a rental survey of the Dorchester market in the future, said the issues raising rents and gentrification needs to be addressed before the neighborhoods lose the diversity that attracted so many people to the area in the first place.
We have a lot of conflict going on now, she said. Some people want to take advantage of the real estate market, but we need to look at alternatives to let people stay here. The diversity here is valuable.
They’re making cultural decisions by making economic decisions, she said.
