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Real Estate Prices & Overview

West Roxbury Center / Highland median real estate price is $918,769, which is more expensive than 75.7% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts and 89.5% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.

The average rental price in West Roxbury Center / Highland is currently $3,516, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 63.9% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts.

West Roxbury Center / Highland is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Boston, Massachusetts.

West Roxbury Center / Highland real estate is primarily made up of medium sized (three or four bedroom) to small (studio to two bedroom) single-family homes and small apartment buildings. Most of the residential real estate is owner occupied. Many of the residences in the West Roxbury Center / Highland neighborhood are relatively historic, built no later than 1939, and in some cases, quite a bit earlier. A number of residences were also built between 1940 and 1969.

Home and apartment vacancy rates are 6.6% in West Roxbury Center / Highland. NeighborhoodScout analysis shows that this rate is lower than 56.0% of the neighborhoods in the nation, approximately near the middle range for vacancies.

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

People

If you're a regular supporter of the arts and enjoy outings to the theatre, weekend boutique-ing, or even a finely aged wine with dinner, than you're in good company with the people of the West Roxbury Center / Highland neighborhood. This neighborhood is uniquely immersed with more "urban sophisticates" than 99.4% of neighborhoods across the country. The people here truly stand out as a class among their own. They are an exclusive community characterized by refined tastes, cultural inclinations, and the means to live well. Urban sophisticates live a big city lifestyle, whether or not they live in or near a big city. They are educated executives or managers by week, and serial patrons of the arts by weekend. If this lifestyle pertains to you, than you'll certainly feel right at home in the West Roxbury Center / Highland neighborhood.

In addition, some neighborhoods have residents that are more educated than others. But in this neighborhood there is a dramatic difference. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that 40.5% of the adults here have earned a Masters degree, medical degree, Ph.D. or law degree. This is a higher rate of people with a graduate degree than is found in 97.2% of U.S. neighborhoods, where the average American neighborhood has 13.4% of its adults with a graduate degree. If you are highly educated, you may have much in common with many of your neighbors here.

Modes of Transportation

If you like to ride the train to work, this neighborhood may be for you. NeighborhoodScout's research revealed that 14.1% of the West Roxbury Center / Highland neighborhood's commuters ride the train to and from work each day, which is more than we found in 96.2% of America's neighborhoods.

Real Estate

Do you watch 'This Old House' on Public Television? Do you love the idea of fixing up a Colonial or Victorian era home, complete with the charm of yesteryear? Do you like to stroll or drive streets lined with gracious older residences? If you found yourself nodding yes to any of these questions, you are going to be interested in this unique neighborhood. The West Roxbury Center / Highland neighborhood stands out on a national scale for the sheer concentration of historic residences it contains: 67.9% of the residential real estate here was built from 1939 or earlier, some much earlier. This is a greater concentration of historic homes than 98.2% of the neighborhoods in the United States.

Diversity

Did you know that the West Roxbury Center / Highland neighborhood has more Irish and Portuguese ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 34.7% of this neighborhood's residents have Irish ancestry and 5.5% have Portuguese ancestry.

West Roxbury Center / Highland is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 3.0% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Greek at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.7% of the neighborhoods in America.

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 West Roxbury Center / Highland 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 93.6% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 3.4% 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 70.0% 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 West Roxbury Center / Highland neighborhood, 66.2% 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 19.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations (7.7%), and 6.6% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.

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 West Roxbury Center / Highland neighborhood is English, spoken by 77.8% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Chinese and Greek.

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 West Roxbury Center / Highland neighborhood in Boston, MA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (34.7%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (15.9%), and residents who report Asian roots (8.4%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (7.2%), along with some Polish ancestry residents (6.7%), among others. In addition, 20.1% 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 West Roxbury Center / Highland neighborhood spend between 30 and 45 minutes commuting one-way to work (32.4% of working residents), which is at or a bit above the average length of a commute across all U.S. neighborhoods.

Here most residents (54.3%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (14.1%) and 9.2% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors 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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