Waterfront median real estate price is $1,558,641, which is more expensive than 97.5% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts and 98.3% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.
The average rental price in Waterfront is currently $6,462, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 98.7% of the neighborhoods in Massachusetts.
Waterfront is a densely urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Boston, Massachusetts. This is a coastal neighborhood (i.e., is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet).
Waterfront real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) apartment complexes/high-rise apartments and single-family homes. Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied. Many of the residences in the Waterfront neighborhood are established but not old, having been built between 1970 and 1999. A number of residences were also built between 1940 and 1969.
Vacant apartments or homes are a major fact of life in Waterfront. The current real estate vacancy rate here is 18.8%. This is higher than the rate of vacancies in 84.2% of all U.S. neighborhoods. A relatively large percentage of housing here is seasonally occupied (17.3%). This can occur in vacation areas, and occasionally it is also found in neighborhoods that are primarily filled with college students, as some apartments could be vacant when school is not in session. If you live here year round, you may find that a number of buildings in your neighborhood are actually empty.
The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.
If you like crowded places, then you will probably enjoy the the Waterfront neighborhood. According to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive data analysis, this neighborhood is more densely populated than 95.7% of neighborhoods in the U.S., with 23,264 people per square mile living here. Do you like a coastal setting? If so, this neighborhood may be to your liking. The Waterfront neighborhood is on the ocean, a bay, or inlet. Often such coastal places have amenities and recreational activities on the waterfront that are attractive to residents and visitors alike. In addition to being coastal, Waterfront is a very nautical neighborhood, meaning that it is somewhat historic, walkable, densely populated and on the water. This gives the neighborhood a very nautical feel, with some seaside and shipping feel, which some may really enjoy the sights and sounds of.
In addition, the real estate in the Waterfront neighborhood really stands out in the way it looks for a unique reason: this neighborhood has a higher proportion of apartment complexes or high-rise apartments than nearly every neighborhood in the country. Most neighborhoods are a mixture of real estate and housing types, but here it is almost entirely dominated by big apartment buildings and complexes. In fact, 94.7% of the real estate here is classified as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments, which is more than is found in 98.9% of American neighborhoods.
Furthermore, the Waterfront 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 91.9% 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 the Waterfront 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 46.9% 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, if you like to ride the train to work, this neighborhood may be for you. NeighborhoodScout's research revealed that 13.9% of the Waterfront neighborhood's commuters ride the train to and from work each day, which is more than we found in 95.9% of America's neighborhoods.
The rate of college educated adults in the Waterfront neighborhood is a unique characteristic of the neighborhood. 87.6% of adults here have received at least a 4-year bachelor's degree, compared to the average neighborhood in America, which has 33.7% of the adults with a bachelor's degree. The rate here is higher than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.5% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
In addition, think about the people you know personally. How many of them would purchase box seats to opening night at the symphony? How many of them regularly attend gallery openings, or are the first to reserve tickets to opening night at the ballet? If they're like most of us, they don't do any of these things. But if you're among an exclusive crowd of wealthy and refined patrons of the arts, then you'll feel right at home in the Waterfront neighborhood: a neighborhood in which more "urban sophisticates" live than 98.5% of neighborhoods across the U.S. Here, your neighbors are defined as having urbane tastes in literature, music, live theatre and the arts. They are wealthy, educated, travel in style, and live a big city lifestyle whether or not they live in or near a big city.
The Waterfront neighborhood has a higher proportion of its residents employed as executives, managers and professionals than 99.3% of the neighborhoods in America. In fact, 80.8% 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.
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 Waterfront neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. 22.9% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.0% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Did you know that the Waterfront neighborhood has more Eastern European and Armenian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 3.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Eastern European ancestry and 0.7% have Armenian ancestry.
How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.
The neighbors in the Waterfront 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 89.3% of the neighborhoods in America. With 30.4% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 80.8% of U.S. neighborhoods.
The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.
In the Waterfront neighborhood, 80.8% 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 12.5% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions (8.3%), and 6.7% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
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 Waterfront neighborhood is English, spoken by 89.2% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese and Spanish.
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 Waterfront neighborhood in Boston, MA, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (20.6%). There are also a number of people of English ancestry (12.9%), and residents who report Italian roots (10.0%), and some of the residents are also of Polish ancestry (8.9%), along with some German ancestry residents (6.4%), among others. In addition, 17.6% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
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 Waterfront neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (33.0% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (46.9%) hop out the door and walk to work to get to work. In addition, quite a number also drive alone in a private automobile to get to work (21.0%) and 13.9% of residents also take the train 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.