East Boston, Boston Tier 4

A Boston neighborhood · Tier 4 · mixed schools · 1 miles from downtown Boston, about 15 minutes door-to-door at peak · 30% of households own their home.

East Boston, Massachusetts
East Boston · photo via Wikipedia

About East Boston

East Boston is a Boston neighborhood about 1 miles from downtown as the crow flies, 15 minutes at peak, and an expensive market: roughly $1.1M for a 4BR house and $600k for a 2BR condo. Public schools are Boston Public Schools, assigned by lottery rather than by address. The residential rate is $12.40 per $1,000, about average for Massachusetts, but on a $1.1M house that is still about $13,600 a year. Rapid transit reaches downtown in about 8 minutes, so a car-free commute works. That rail time is modeled, not read off the timetable. Airport-adjacent and harbor-facing, with the city's most dramatic skyline views and a fast Blue Line ride under the water.

At a glanceEast Boston
Schoolsmixed schools · Niche 125th of 236 Tier 4
Commute to Boston~15 min at peak · 1 mi · T ~8 min Tier 1
Home price (4BR)$1.1M Tier 3
Property tax$12.40 per $1,000 · ≈$13,600/yr Tier 2

The vibe of East Boston

Coastal & waterfront destinationsCompact centreStrong cultureRail-servedmedium confidence

Very lively, dense/walkable, and well provided with recreation programs, playgrounds and athletic fields; mixed in housing stock, from multifamily properties and smaller condos to higher-priced single-family homes, with strong cultural identity, notable visitor presence, and exceptional public realm.

Energy9
Compact town center9
Family amenities7
Culture10
Visitor presence7
Public gathering places9

Six 1–10 scales for the intensity of each quality, not a score of how good the place is. Higher just means more of that thing. Family amenities counts public recreation infrastructure, not who lives here; these never use race, ethnicity or other protected characteristics, and never measure safety. See the methodology.

The good

Eight minutes to downtown on the Blue Line and the best skyline views in the city, for far less than across the harbor.

The bad

You are next to Logan, and the flight paths are not subtle.

The ugly

Much of it is low-lying fill — East Boston is near the top of the city's own sea-level-rise risk maps.

Our editorial read of East Boston — what the place is known for, good and bad. Opinion, not data.

$1.1M
4BR / 2BA house (est.)
$850k
3BR townhouse (est.)
$600k
2BR condo (est.)
$12.40
Tax per $1,000 (FY2026)
15 min
Peak drive to Boston (modeled)
🚇 8 min
Rapid transit (T) · ~8 min to downtown
30%
Homeowners (ACS 2019–23)
47,263
Residents

Where it is

📍 East Boston · Boston is on the same map for scale

What it takes to live here

To buyMedian price (est.)
4BR / 2BA detached house$1.1M
3BR / 2BA townhouse$850k
2BR condo$600k
Property taxes (FY2026)$12.40 per $1,000 (1.24%)

Each row opens live listings on Redfin for that home type at or below that price, in ZIP 02128. Prices here are modeled estimates; what Redfin shows is the real market today, and the two will not match.

To rentPer month (est.)
4 bedrooms$5,483/mo
3 bedrooms$4,967/mo
2 bedrooms$4,140/mo
1 bedroom$3,483/mo

Rents are HUD FY2026 Small Area Fair Market Rents for East Boston’s ZIP codes — 40th-percentile standard-quality units, so a nice single-family will ask more. Prices are market estimates, not appraisals. Each row opens rentals of that size in ZIP 02128. The search is not capped at the figure beside it: these are benchmark rents rather than asking rents, and filtering to one would hide most of what is actually listed.

Public schools

East Boston is served by Boston Public Schools. Boston does not assign students by neighborhood alone — families rank schools and receive an assignment through the city’s home-based lottery, so the schools your child can attend depend on your address and the lottery, not on the neighborhood line. The district-wide figures below therefore cover all of Boston, not East Boston specifically.

Public School Rankings

Publisher rankingResult
Niche 2026 · Best School Districts#125 of 236 MA districts · B
SchoolDigger 2025 · City/locality test-score rank#295 of 361 MA localities
U.S. News 2025-26 · High school in town (not assigned)#1 of 366 MA · Boston Latin School (exam school — admission by test, not address)
Boston Magazine 2025 · Greater Boston high school#48 of 135 · Boston Latin School
Official Massachusetts data (DESE)Result
MCAS achievement22nd percentile statewide
Student growth (SGP)50th percentile
4-year graduation rate81.3%
DESE accountabilityModerate progress toward targets

Each publisher ranks a different unit (district, locality, or a single school) with its own methodology — shown separately, never blended. DESE figures come from the latest official state reports; MCAS percentile is the district’s statewide rank on % Meeting/Exceeding expectations, ELA + Math. Our editorial school tier above is a separate summary.

Latest school building project: Boston neighborhoods do not operate separate school districts. No neighborhood-specific full-school project with a published total budget was located in the July 2026 review; citywide BPS projects are recorded on the Boston row.

Charter School Options

2 charter schools near East Boston
In East BostonTuition-free · lottery5–12 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · growth 70th pct · 95.1% graduate · Meeting or exceeding targets · $24k/pupil
Nearby · ChelseaTuition-free · lottery9–12 · Charter (public, tuition-free) · 12.3% graduate · Insufficient data · $33k/pupil

Charter schools are public and tuition-free. Admission is by lottery, not address — a seat is never guaranteed. Because they are public, the state publishes their results: MCAS percentile, accountability status and per-pupil spending come from DESE. Several charters here are alternative or recovery high schools that enrol students already off-track, so their MCAS and graduation figures are not comparable with a traditional school’s.

Available Private School Options

16 private schools in East Boston and within 12 miles
In East BostonPreschool–8 · Catholic elementary and middle school · 207 students · ~$10k/yr
Nearby · North EndPreschool–8 · Catholic elementary and middle school · ~$13k/yr
Nearby · Beacon HillPreschool–6 · Christian elementary school · 162 students · 6.4:1 student-teacher · ~$32k/yr
Nearby · Chelsea8–12 · Specialized / placement · 28 students · 4.8:1 student-teacher · placement/specialized
Commonwealth SchoolNiche #3 · A+
Nearby · BostonNEASC accredited9–12 · High school · 163 students · 4.5:1 student-teacher · ~$36k–$50k/yr (est.)
Nearby · BostonNEASC accredited9–12 · High school · ~$36k–$50k/yr (est.)
Nearby · BostonNEASC accreditedPK–12 · PK/K–12 · ~$36k–$50k/yr (est.)
Roxbury LatinNiche #13 · A+
Nearby · BostonNEASC accredited7–12 · Independent boys' college-preparatory school · 307 students · ~$43k/yr
The Winsor SchoolNiche #16 · A+
Nearby · BostonAISNE accredited5–12 · Middle / high · ~$36k–$50k/yr (est.)
Newman SchoolNiche #35 · A+
Nearby · BostonNEASC accredited7–12 · IB college-preparatory school; day and boarding · 267 students · ~$34k/yr
Boston Trinity AcademyNiche #40 · A+
Nearby · BostonNEASC accredited6–12 · Middle / high · ~$18k–$28k/yr (est.)
Meridian AcademyNiche #45 · A+
Nearby · Boston5–12 · Middle / high · 91 students · 5.3:1 student-teacher · ~$36k–$50k/yr (est.)
Nearby · DorchesterNEASC accredited7–12 · Catholic boys' college-preparatory school · 1,327 students · ~$29k/yr
Catholic MemorialNiche #57 · A+
Nearby · BostonNEASC accredited7–12 · Catholic boys' college-preparatory school · 617 students · 12.5:1 student-teacher · ~$28k/yr
Nearby · BostonPK–6 · Elementary / middle · 432 students · 6.9:1 student-teacher · ~$8k–$15k/yr (est.)
Nearby · DorchesterPK–8 · Catholic elementary and middle school · 421 students · ~$12k/yr

Schools within 12 miles of East Boston, from the MA DESE 2025–26 non-public enrollment report plus the Niche ranking of Massachusetts private high schools. Tuition shown as an estimated range by school type, grades and region — not school-published pricing. A parochial school and an independent day school are priced very differently, so treat these as a starting point and confirm with the school. Niche ranks private high schools only, so an elementary school never carries a number; where one shows a letter instead, that is Niche’s own overall grade, which reaches schools no ranked list does. Neither is a state measure — private schools sit no MCAS and report no results to Massachusetts. That Niche extract is also partial, so a school showing neither was not judged and found wanting; it may simply not have been in it. Student numbers are the figure schools do report, from the same DESE return. Where a student-teacher ratio is shown it is students over full-time-equivalent teachers in the federal Private School Universe Survey, 2021–22, the most recent published — a rough guide to class size, not a class size, and not a ranking either. It is shown only where that survey and the state agree on how many pupils the school has, which is why many schools here have none. Accreditation comes from the AISNE member directory, which records whether a school holds AISNE or NEASC accreditation — the two split the work by age rather than compete, AISNE taking the elementary and middle schools and NEASC the secondary ones. It means an outside body has reviewed the school against published standards on a ten-year cycle. It is not a measure of results, and its absence is not a mark against a school: plenty are not members at all. That directory is also where the schools marked files no enrolment with the state come from. They are real schools that simply make no return to Massachusetts, so the state holds no size for them and this page can show none — and for those, the grade range is read off AISNE’s age bands rather than taken from the school, so treat it as approximate and confirm with the school.

What’s around East Boston

urban9,905 people per square mile across 4.8 sq mi city density — 5,000+ people per square mile

What’s hereCount
Cafés and coffee shops
See the list

1 more is mapped without a name, so it cannot be listed.

23
Bookshops
See the list
5
Museums, theatres and galleries
See the list

1 more is mapped without a name, so it cannot be listed.

4
Colleges and universities0
Public libraryBoston Public Library branches

Density is Census population over land area. Café, bookshop and culture counts are what is mapped in OpenStreetMap — a volunteer map, so a well-mapped town looks busier than a thinly-mapped one. Read a low count as “little mapped here”, not “nothing here”. Colleges are active degree-granting institutions in the federal IPEDS directory; enrolment and campus housing capacity are its 2023 figures. The public library comes from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, which lists library systems rather than every branch. Boston neighborhood figures are counted inside the neighborhood’s own boundary, not the city’s. These figures describe places, never the people in them — see our methodology.

Census snapshot
ACS 2019–2023 (via MAPC DataCommon)Share
Homeowner households30%
White (non-Hispanic)30%
Asian (non-Hispanic)3.0%
Latino / Hispanic60%
African American (non-Hispanic)4.0%
These figures are neutral census facts, shown for every town equally. They are never used to filter, rank, or recommend towns — see our methodology and the federal Fair Housing Act.

Town spending & civic data

Boston (citywide)Figure
Residents47,263
Municipal budgetFY2025, DLS Schedule A$4.78B
School district spendingBoston district$2.04B
Spending per pupil DESE, total expenditures$33,854
School spending per resident$43,235
Affordable housing units (Ch. 40B inventory)2,074

Boston neighborhoods share the city’s schools, budget and citywide counts. Municipal budget is Boston’s FY2025 General Fund total expenditures from its DLS Schedule A filing — the appropriated operating budget, excluding self-supporting enterprise funds. School spending is the Boston district’s total expenditures from the DESE Per Pupil Expenditure report — a regional district, so the spend covers every member town, not just this one. Affordable-housing counts reflect the state Subsidized Housing Inventory. These figures are shown as neutral facts and never used to rank or filter towns.

Data status

FigureStatus
Home pricesCalibrated to the Zillow Home Value Index and Redfin market pages. For comparison, not appraisal.Preliminary
Property tax rateFY2026 residential rate per $1,000, from municipal assessor and treasurer pages.Preliminary
RentsHUD FY2026 Small Area Fair Market Rents, by ZIP.Sourced
School dataDESE published state reports. Publisher ranks carry their own edition and denominator. The school tier is editorial.Sourced
CommuteRail times for the 75 towns we could verify against the MBTA's published timetable are real scheduled journeys, transfers included. Where a town has rail but no verified journey, its rail time is modeled too, and the town page says so. Driving is modeled from distance with corridor adjustments, and station access is a flat allowance. Not measured by a routing API.Measured + modeled

This community was added after the original hundred, so its prices and tax rate are preliminary estimates pending verification against municipal and census records. Data last reviewed . Full detail on every source is in the methodology.

Realistic alternatives to East Boston

Towns you could plausibly shortlist instead: comparable price and school tier, similar size and density, same part of the state.

RoxburyTier 4
Also Tier 4, about $150k cheaper
Mission HillTier 4
Also Tier 4, about $300k more expensive
DorchesterTier 4
Also Tier 4, about $150k cheaper
RoslindaleTier 4
Also Tier 4, 9 min further from Boston
West RoxburyTier 4
Also Tier 4, 11 min further from Boston
Hyde ParkTier 4
Also Tier 4, about $250k cheaper

Surprisingly similar in character

Close across the six vibe dimensions but not a substitute — a different price bracket, a different end of the state, or both.

Jamaica PlainTier 4
Both cultural and social · $500k dearer
South EndTier 4
Both cultural and compact · $2.1M dearer
AllstonTier 4
Both lively and compact · $400k dearer
South BostonTier 4
Both lively and social · $900k dearer
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