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Real Estate Prices & Overview

Government Center median real estate price is $674,009, which is more expensive than 54.3% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts and 81.3% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.

The average rental price in Government Center is currently $5,308, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 94.9% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts.

Government Center is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Boston, Massachusetts.

Government Center real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two 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 Government Center neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built before 1940.

Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Government Center. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 30.9%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 95.1% 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

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 Government Center neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.

People

Of note is NeighborhoodScout's research finding that the Government Center neighborhood has some of the lowest rates of children living in poverty of any neighborhood in the United States. In a nation where approximately 1 in 4 children are living in poverty, the Government Center community truly stands out from the rest in this regard.

In addition, an extraordinary 26.1% of the residents of the Government Center neighborhood are currently enrolled in college. This is such a large part of life in this neighborhood that the neighborhood changes a great deal with the change of semesters and is far quieter during the summer when many students are away.

Also, a unique characteristic about the people in the Government Center neighborhood is that a majority of them are young, single professionals. In fact, there are more young, single professionals in this one community than 96.3% of neighborhoods in the U.S. Here you'll find an active nightlife nearby with lots of opportunities to flirt and find romance. 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 Government Center 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 100.0% 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 Government Center neighborhood is that it is almost entirely dominated by large apartment buildings, such as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments. 97.6% 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 99.5% of all neighborhoods in America.

Furthermore, 94.8% of the real estate in the Government Center neighborhood is occupied by renters, which is nearly the highest rate of renter occupancy of any neighborhood in America. Despite all of the residential real estate here in the Government Center neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 30.9%, which is higher than 95.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods.

Modes of Transportation

In the Government Center 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 47.1% of residents here. This is a higher proportion of walking commuters than we found in 99.8% of American neighborhoods. Get ready to put on your walking shoes if you move here!

Also, in the Government Center neighborhood, 18.2% of people ride the train to work each day. This is a very high percentage compared to most places. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this is a higher level of train ridership than in 97.0% of the neighborhoods in America.

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 Government Center neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. 68.3% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.5% of U.S. neighborhoods.

Occupations

The Government Center neighborhood has a higher proportion of its residents employed as executives, managers and professionals than 96.7% of the neighborhoods in America. In fact, 72.5% 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.

Diversity

Did you know that the Government Center neighborhood has more Greek and Brazilian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 2.7% of this neighborhood's residents have Greek ancestry and 1.4% have Brazilian ancestry.

Migration / Stability

Do you like to be surrounded by people from all over the country or world, with different perspectives and life experiences? Or do you instead prefer to be in a neighborhood where most residents have lived there for a long time, creating a sense of cohesiveness? NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this neighborhood stands out among American neighborhoods for the uniqueness of the mobility of its residents. In the Government Center neighborhood, a greater proportion of the residents living here today did not live here five years ago than is found in 97.2% 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 Government Center 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 91.3% 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.

What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.

In the Government Center neighborhood, 72.5% 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 11.8% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (9.3%), and 6.4% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.

Languages

The most common language spoken in the Government Center neighborhood is English, spoken by 79.0% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (7.0%).

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 Government Center neighborhood in Boston, MA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (16.6%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (13.7%), and residents who report Asian roots (9.8%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (6.0%), along with some German ancestry residents (5.8%), among others. In addition, 17.2% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.

Getting to Work

How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in Government Center neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (45.7% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.

Here most residents (47.1%) hop out the door and walk to work to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (18.2%) and 7.5% of residents also drive alone in a private automobile 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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