Find a neighborhood that feels like you.
Official planning neighborhood: Brighton
Published fit 51 uses default walkable weights and a $2,500 ACS rent budget — the same number as the Boston table. Your current weights score this 50.
Data period. ACS 2024 5-year (2020-2024) · BPD Oct 2025 – Sep 2026 · OSM Sep 2026. ACS and BPD retrieved 2026-09-10; OSM retrieved 2026-09-10. Editorial copy last revised Sep 2026.
The western end of the same student river as Allston, with more two-families. Cleveland Circle and Oak Square are the searches. You will ride the B or C more than you walk downtown.
Best in Boston for familiesWalkable BostonUnder $2,500 rent
Default walkable weights, $2,500 ACS rent budget. Same axes as the city table and the FAQ.
39 violent · 457 property · 10.3 per 1k (Oct 2025 – Sep 2026)+29 vs city set
Rating 6.8 / 10 nearby+2 vs city set
OSM: 19 groceries · 20 cafes · 144 transit · 37 parks-1 vs city set
$2,238 ACS median vs published $2,500 rent budget+2 vs city set
OSM: 20 cafes · 69 restaurants · 4 bars · 37 parks-10 vs city set
From Brighton, a typical weekday is 28 min to Downtown, 36 min to Seaport, 16 min to Longwood. Not live traffic.
Longwood is the fastest of these three job centers from here.
Downtown Crossing, Financial District · +12 min vs the city-set median
Innovation District, the waterfront · +17 min vs the city-set median
Hospitals, medical offices · -2 min vs the city-set median · fastest of these three
Minutes are baked from neighborhood geography to three job centers — not Google, not this hour’s traffic.
The ACS median rent is $2,238 — every occupied rental mixed together, not the 1-bed in the window.
That is 29% of median household income — under the 30% HUD line. A household at this area’s median income ($94K) could “afford” about $2,348 a month at 30% of pay.
77% of households rent. Median home value is $689,762.
ACS 5-year median gross rent for Boston city. Up 65% since 2014. Brighton is 4% above the 2024 city median.
Overlapping 5-year ACS windows (B25064), not asking rent. Census does not publish a rent series for each official neighborhood, so the line is the city place. The dashed mark is this area’s ACS 2024 median.
HUD treats 30% of income as the cost-burden line. We do not split ACS rent into 1-bed vs 2-bed. Method.
Within a short walk of this official planning neighborhood: 19 groceries, 20 cafes, 37 parks, and 144 transit stops.
Daily errands and coffee are realistic on foot. Parks are close — 37 mapped parks in that radius. Transit is dense (144 stops or stations).
20 cafes and 69 restaurants make this one of the busier food pockets in the Boston set.
OpenStreetMap, 800 meters. Not a Walk Score license. More groceries than 15 of the other 19 areas in this city.
ACS 2024 5-year (2020-2024) · 14 census tracts · BPD Oct 2025 – Sep 2026 · OSM 2026-09-10
Crime is BPD Part I reports per 1,000 ACS residents — not a judgment of who lives here. Home and rent figures are ACS medians, not live MLS. Read the method.
What it is like to live here, beyond the scores.
The western end of the same student river as Allston, with more two-families. Cleveland Circle and Oak Square are the searches. You will ride the B or C more than you walk downtown. Cost is the point relative to Back Bay.
Weight the Longwood commute and budget. Allston is louder and closer to the BU strip. West Roxbury is the house version of west-of-downtown if the T is not the product.
Compiled from Zillow neighborhood guides, 5280 Magazine, Chicago and San Francisco resident guides, Mpls With Love, Eastside LA reporting, Seattle Times coverage, Boston planning-neighborhood writing, Philadelphia neighborhood writing, Portland neighborhood writing, and local writing, 2025–2026. Editorial — not part of the fit score.
Public posts from r/boston that mention this neighborhood. Not Nextdoor, not people on this block, and not part of the fit score.
No r/boston posts in this snapshot mentioned Brighton.
Last 90 days, snapshot 2026-09-01. Method.
Straight answers from the numbers on this page.
Brighton sits on the quieter side of this Boston map (safety 79 vs city 50). BPD logged 0.8 violent and 9.5 property incidents per 1,000 residents — 10.3 combined. Visitors count in those numbers. This is not a judgment of who lives here.
ACS median rent is $2,238 — studios through large apartments mixed together. About 77% of households rent. Median home value is $689,762. Survey medians, not a listing you can message tonight.
Walk is 26 here vs 27 for the Boston set — you will likely drive or ride for a weekly shop. Inside 800 meters: 19 groceries, 20 cafes, 144 transit stops, 37 parks. Not a Walk Score license.
The scores lean family relative to this city set. Nearby school rating is 6.8 / 10. Median age is 29.4. That rating is not your assigned campus.
28 typical weekday minutes to Downtown. Not the app on your phone this hour. Other job centers are further down this page.
About 48,045 people. Median income $94K. 73% have a bachelor's or higher.
Allston, Fenway, Mission Hill sit closest on this map. If you are choosing between two official planning neighborhoods, start with Brighton vs Allston.
Closest on this schematic map, scored with the same published walkable weights as the Boston table. Distances here are not street geography.
Brighton vs AllstonBrighton vs FenwayBrighton vs Mission Hill
$3K ACS median rent
Newbury, the brownstones, the Public Garden. Bay Village is a search term that sits inside the same planning neighborhood. You pay for the postcard and for the visitors who shop it.
$2K ACS median rent
JP: the Pond, Centre Street, and the first stop for people who want a porch without leaving the city line. The Southwest Corridor is the spine.
$2K ACS median rent
Harvard Ave and Brighton Ave are the night. Students, late buses, and a rent that still undercuts Back Bay. Brookline is the next city over, not this official polygon.
$2K ACS median rent
The park, the students, Kenmore, and Longwood as a search that actually sits next door. Game day is a tax. The rest of the week is apartments and hospitals.
$2K ACS median rent
The hill above the Longwood hospitals. Students, brick, and a walk to the Fens. Quieter than Fenway’s bars, tighter than JP’s porches.