Dorchester, Mattapan and the southwest
The annexed towns beyond Franklin Park, where most of Boston's one and two-family housing is and where the commute runs longest.
Photograph: Highland MBTA station · Pi.1415926535 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
5 guides in the towns Boston annexed beyond Franklin Park. Dorchester alone counted 122,191 residents in 2020, more than every Massachusetts city except Boston and Worcester, and it is far too large to be one housing market. Mattapan, Roslindale, West Roxbury and Hyde Park run southwest from it, and Hyde Park was the last town Boston annexed, in 1912.
Most of Boston's one and two-family housing is here, and this is the only part of the city where buying a house rather than a unit is the ordinary case. The trade is the commute. West Roxbury and Hyde Park have no rapid transit at all and depend on the Needham and Providence commuter rail lines, whose fares and frequencies are a different product from a subway pass. Mattapan is served by a trolley line dating to 1929 that the MBTA has been trying to replace for half a century. Price the commute in fares and minutes for the exact address, and read these neighborhoods at street level rather than by their names, because Dorchester in particular is several markets filed under one word.
5 communities, guide by guide
Dorchester
A former town of 122,191 people, larger than every Massachusetts city but Boston and Worcester, and too big to be one housing market.
- 122,191
- Residents, BPDA approximation of the 2020 census by block group, 2020
- $499,600
- Median assessed value of a condominium parcel in postal Dorchester, City of Boston Assessing, fiscal 2026
Hyde Park
The last town Boston annexed, in 1912, and the only neighborhood whose main link to the center is commuter rail rather than rapid transit.
- 33,009
- Residents, BPDA approximation of the 2020 census by block group, 2020
- $558,200
- Median assessed value of a single-family house in postal Hyde Park, the building type most of the neighborhood is, City of Boston Assessing, fiscal 2026
Mattapan
The center of Boston's Haitian and Caribbean population, served by a 1929 trolley line the MBTA has been trying to replace for half a century.
- 23,834
- Residents, BPDA approximation of the 2020 census by block group, 2020
- $522,450
- Median assessed value of a single-family house in postal Mattapan, City of Boston Assessing, fiscal 2026
Roslindale
A late streetcar suburb of one and two-family houses around a commuter rail square, and one of the few parts of Boston where a house is likelier than a condominium.
- 29,386
- Residents, BPDA approximation of the 2020 census by block group, 2020
- 77%
- Share of the 7,615 one to three-family and condominium parcels in postal Roslindale flagged owner-occupied, third-highest of the 23 Boston guides here behind West Roxbury and Hyde Park, City of Boston Assessing, fiscal 2026
West Roxbury
The most suburban part of Boston, detached houses on lots, three commuter rail stops and no rapid transit.
- 31,561
- Residents, BPDA approximation of the 2020 census by block group, 2020
- 89%
- Share of the 6,555 single-family parcels in the West Roxbury postal city flagged owner-occupied, City of Boston Assessing, fiscal 2026
Photographs: Thane Street Historic District, Dorchester, Boston by Magicpiano, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · Hyde Park from inbound footbridge by Pi.1415926535, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons · Mattapan Square by 4300streetcar, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · Downtown Boston from Peters Hill, Roslindale by Matthias Nonnenmacher, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
