By Ales Mejia and Matija Jankovic, Center for Housing Data at MHP

This past fall, the Center for Housing Data was joined by Ales Mejia, a data science intern from Messina College. Ales is a second-year data science major interested in using data visualization to tell a story about housing in Massachusetts. As a Boston native, Ales was motivated to use MHP's Residensity dataset to develop a comparative analysis of density and land use patterns in neighborhoods across the City of Boston. His project features an interactive map of Boston’s density patterns, graphics breaking down neighborhood-level land use patterns, and his observations captured in the field on neighborhood walks. We encourage you to explore his findings below and consider using Residensity to explore your own neighborhood.

As someone who grew up in Boston, I was curious about why housing trends were so different across the city’s neighborhoods. Once I began working with MHP’s Residensity dataset, I grew curious about how density and land use patterns contributed to these differences and after analyzing the data and observing density and land use patterns in person, my understanding of Boston’s housing trends deepened. I saw many interesting differences between neighborhoods such as Dorchester, Hyde Park, and Back Bay, which motivated me to go on in-person neighborhood walks to see how it compares to what I found in the data. The goal of this research project was to answer the following questions:

1. How do density and land use patterns differ across Boston’s neighborhoods?
2. How does the data compare to real world walkthroughs of the neighborhoods?

The interactive map of Boston below helps us start to answer these questions by allowing users to see data on each neighborhood’s average density, total housing units, and total residential acreage, as well as in-depth breakdowns of housing uses within each neighborhood.

Residential Density Across Boston's Neighborhoods

Neighborhood Case Studies: Hyde Park

Hyde Park stands out as one of Boston’s lowest density neighborhoods with an average residential density of 11.72 units per acre. As a neighborhood with relatively low housing density, Hyde Park is made up of primarily single-family homes, two-family homes, and a small number of apartments, ranging from condominiums to medium-sized developments with four to eight units.

Hyde Park’s residential density comes as a result of housing 13,398 units over roughly 1142 acres used for housing. In context, Hyde Park’s low average density is expressed through its atmosphere of tree lines, abundant open spaces for parks, parking lots, and other non-housing amenities. With its low density—in comparison to other neighborhoods in the area such as Dorchester—we can infer that Hyde Park is a neighborhood that supports a suburban commuter lifestyle where most of the housing is used by single families with enough space for driveways and backyards; in other neighborhoods with comparatively higher residential density, this space might otherwise be used to accommodate more housing units.

Hyde Park Neighborhood Walk

During my neighborhood walk through Hyde Park I could instantly tell that Hyde Park was a neighborhood where most of its emphasis was on residential housing. Hyde Park is one of Boston’s more residentially focused neighborhoods as it is filled with a variety of homes ranging from single-family to apartment style condominiums. In comparison to my walk through Dorchester, Hyde Park had less people walking around, less crosswalks, and a far less variety of businesses and stores. All this extra space wasn’t just left to waste; during the walkthrough I noticed that Hyde Park had an abundance of residential homes with enough space for large driveways and backyards, as well as nearby public parks. The lack of crosswalks in comparison to Dorchester and the larger roads was likely due to most residents of Hyde Park being commuters who drive deeper into the city for work and for other necessities. Having more space for homes allows Hyde Park to create more single-family homes in comparison to neighborhoods with a larger density such as Dorchester where the housing types are more apartment style to fit in as many units as possible given the limited amount of space available in housing acreage.

Neighborhood Case Studies: Dorchester

Dorchester has a moderate average residential density of 28.16 units per acre. Despite its proximity to Hyde Park, Dorchester's average residential density is more than double that of its neighbor. This difference comes as a result of its land use practices; Dorchester houses 55,297 units over a total of 1963.51 acres used for housing.

In comparison to a neighborhood like Hyde Park, Dorchester contains over 40,000 more units than Hyde Park by incorporating a greater variety of housing types such as triple-deckers, condominiums and two-family homes, which make roughly 63% of its housing units. Since more than half of Dorchester’s housing is made up of multi-family homes, Dorchester can still accommodate an abundance of families while still leaving room for businesses, parks, open space, and other amenities. Dorchester is able to do this effectively because many of its businesses are planted on the ground floor of its apartments. Over 5,000 of Dorchester’s housing units are part of mixed-use developments, where commercial and residential uses share a single parcel of land. By spreading housing units vertically, Dorchester can create a balance between residential housing, businesses, and open space that isn’t as common in lower-density neighborhoods such as Hyde Park and West Roxbury where housing tends to be more spread out.

Dorchester Neighborhood Walk

After going on a neighborhood walk through Dorchester, I found that the scenery reflects what I saw in the data. The neighborhood’s atmosphere can be described as residential while still incorporating plenty of small businesses from cultural restaurants to mom and pop shops and other amenities. Dorchester, as a neighborhood, felt very walkable with practically everything being within a short distance from people’s homes. Dorchester is also intertwined with MBTA service, whether it be buses or trains, not only allowing for accessibility within the neighborhood itself, but also for traveling further into the city. A big component of Dorchester versatility comes from stacking different building uses, also known as mixed-use development. If I was to describe Dorchester to a tourist after my neighborhood walk, I would say that it’s a residentially focused neighborhood that still incorporates a heavy sense of business and community, all the while being pedestrian-friendly and granting easy access to the rest of the city through a variety of MBTA connections.

Neighborhood Case Studies: Back Bay

Back Bay presents a unique example of housing density. Located in the heart of the city, Back Bay has an abundance of stores and shopping centers alongside high-rise developments and office buildings. With an average residential density of 94.6 units per acre, Back Bay is still packed very tightly even though much of its space is not used for housing.

Despite having only 128 acres of land used for housing—roughly one tenth of that of Hyde Park—Back Bay is still able to house nearly the same number of units as Hyde Park. But how is this possible? Like Dorchester, although on a different scale, Back Bay makes use of its limited acreage by housing most of its units in high-rise condominiums and apartments with over eight units. Nearly all of Back Bay’s housing units are in multi-family buildings, with single-family homes accounting for just under 200 units. Back Bay’s historical architecture allows it to create a balance of residential space while still providing a wide variety of commerce locations along with other amenities. Despite not being a residentially focused neighborhood, Back Bay still contains over 12,000 housing units across a relatively small land area, showing the versatility of its land use practices. Back Bay is also a special case as many of its apartments are historical structures, meaning that most of the businesses and shopping centers had to be built around residential spaces rather than vice versa.

Back Bay Neighborhood Walk

Back Bay is one of Boston’s busiest neighborhoods as it’s filled with a large variety of businesses that range from high-end restaurants to shopping centers, while still incorporating room for large condos and apartment buildings. As a neighborhood with many shopping districts, Back Bay receives a lot of foot traffic from people all over the city. Back Bay is unique in that the residential and commercial areas are clearly separated; one second, I was walking through Copley’s shopping centers and businesses and the next street over I was walking through a variety of condos and apartment buildings. The heavy foot traffic was arguably the most noticeable difference amongst all my neighborhood walks. As a neighborhood with multiple MBTA connections to buses and trains, along with plenty of crosswalks, Back Bay is a very pedestrian-friendly neighborhood that offers a variety of amenities in both entertainment and housing. The most interesting thing I noticed about Back Bay’s residential area was the visual consistency of its buildings. As seen in the neighborhood walkthrough photos, the condos and apartments in Back Bay showed a very cohesive architectural style that made the neighborhood feel very residential and put together.

For questions about this research, please contact Ales Mejia and connect with Ales on LinkedIn.

To connect with CHD staff about this research and future projects, please contact CHD's Senior Research Analyst Matija Jankovic.

For more media inquiries, please contact MHP Communication Manager Lisa Braxton, (857) 301-1526.

Boston's residential density data is provided by CHD's Residensity platform. Visit Residensity to explore land use patterns in your neighborhood.