Boston Real Estate

Boston real estate might be the third most costly in the United States after San Francisco and Honolulu, but it's best to know that first. Get the bad news out of the way. Move on to the adventure and challenge of buying a home. Look forward to living in a vibrant, compact and historically rich city.

From Back Bay lobsters and Fenway baseball games, to the semi-professional Reagle Players theater company, to the country's oldest New Year's celebration, the city offers something for everyone. You may commute from where you live to where you work or from where you live to where you play. The average commute time in Boston is about 25 minutes.

You might think of Boston real estate as the house you'll live in, but it includes the more than 120 station stops of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA). The MBTA, between its subway in the city of Boston and its commuter rail system, stretches from above Lowell in the north to Worcester in the west to Plymouth in the south.

Learning Your Way around Boston Real Estate

The city's 48.4 square acres of Boston real estate are divided into 21 neighborhoods. Diverse in origin, character, culture and history, these define Boston in the richest possible way. A good first introduction to them is available online at the city of Boston site. Each is mapped geographically and described with a thumbnail character sketch. Best known are Beacon Hill, where the first English settler William Blackthorn lived for five years before settlers arrived in 1622.