Boston

Neighborhoods

Housing in Boston is notoriously expensive, particularly in the wake of a real estate boom that began in the 1980s, the effects of which have been felt as far away as Providence, Rhode Island. More than 60 percent of the city's residents live in apartments. As of the 1990 census, Boston had 250,000 housing units, with the lowest vacancy rate in the country (four-and-a-half percent). The median value of an owner-occupied home in 1990 was $161,400 (compared with the national average of roughly $100,000); median monthly rent was $546.

Boston's rich ethnic mix is reflected in the composition of several of its best-known neighborhoods. Beacon Hill has traditionally been known as the home of the Boston Brahmin elite. The major Irish population centers are Charles-town and South Boston ("Southie"). The North End is heavily Italian, and primarily black neighborhoods include Roxbury, Mattapan, and Codman Square. In recent years, sizable Hispanic populations have grown up in Jamaica Plain and Dudley.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority, established in 1957 by Mayor John B. Hynes, oversaw the development of the $150 million, 13-hectare (31-acre) Prudential Plaza, a shopping, residential, and hotel complex crowned by Prudential Tower, the 52-story building that gave the city a new skyline and was its tallest building until the completion of the John Hancock Tower in the 1970s. In the 1960s, the rundown Scollay Square area was razed to make way for Government Center, a complex of federal and state office buildings. Development of Boston's waterfront since the 1970s has seen the conversion of existing buildings into apartments and the erection of new high-rises.