2 guides west of the Charles, annexed from Newton in 1874 and separated from the rest of Boston by the town of Brookline. Allston is a student quarter more than a neighborhood, where Harvard owns much of the land north of the Turnpike and the lease year starts on the first of September. Brighton is larger and more settled, and holds the city's biggest supply of 1920s courtyard apartment blocks.
The September turnover is the practical fact here and it is worth taking literally: a large share of the stock changes hands on one day, which sets when things are listed, what they rent for and how much of the supply is aimed at students rather than at owners. Transit is the other constraint. The Green Line's B branch runs in the street along Commonwealth Avenue and is slower than the map implies, and Brighton's western end is a bus ride from any rapid transit at all. Both sit outside the two arguments that dominate the rest of Boston, the waterfront and the downtown office conversion, which is part of why they price on their own terms.
2 communities, guide by guide
Allston
A student quarter more than a neighborhood, where the lease year starts on 1 September and Harvard owns most of the land north of the Turnpike.
- 28,621
- Residents, BPDA approximation of the 2020 census by block group, 2020
- 28%
- Share of the 3,374 one to three-family and condominium parcels here flagged owner-occupied, third-lowest of the 23 Boston guides here, City of Boston Assessing, fiscal 2026
Brighton
Part of Cambridge until 1807, its own town until Boston annexed it in 1874, separated from the rest of Boston by Brookline, and holding the city's largest supply of 1920s courtyard apartment blocks.
- 48,330
- Residents, BPDA approximation of the 2020 census by block group, 2020
- $421,700
- Median assessed value of a condominium parcel in postal Brighton, the lowest of the Boston guides here that publish one, City of Boston Assessing, fiscal 2026
Photographs: Packard's Corner, Boston, MA, USA by bynyalcin, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
