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Official planning neighborhood: Mattapan
Published fit 28 uses default walkable weights and a $2,500 ACS rent budget — the same number as the Boston table. Your current weights score this 28.
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 southern T. More Caribbean grocers than cafes. Cost is the point relative to this Boston set. Weight family and budget, not a night out.
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.
115 violent · 289 property · 14.4 per 1k (Oct 2025 – Sep 2026)+3 vs city set
Rating 5.4 / 10 nearby-48 vs city set
OSM: 2 groceries · 0 cafes · 108 transit · 21 parks-27 vs city set
$1,700 ACS median vs published $2,500 rent budget+2 vs city set
OSM: 0 cafes · 3 restaurants · 0 bars · 21 parks-33 vs city set
From Mattapan, a typical weekday is 32 min to Downtown, 30 min to Seaport, 28 min to Longwood. Not live traffic.
Longwood is the fastest of these three job centers from here.
Downtown Crossing, Financial District · +16 min vs the city-set median
Innovation District, the waterfront · +11 min vs the city-set median
Hospitals, medical offices · +10 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 $1,700 — every occupied rental mixed together, not the 1-bed in the window.
That is 27% of median household income — under the 30% HUD line. A household at this area’s median income ($77K) could “afford” about $1,914 a month at 30% of pay.
55% of households rent. Median home value is $549,567.
ACS 5-year median gross rent for Boston city. Up 65% since 2014. Mattapan is 21% below 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: 2 groceries, 0 cafes, 21 parks, and 108 transit stops.
A grocery run on foot is possible; some trips will still need a ride. Parks are close — 21 mapped parks in that radius. Transit is dense (108 stops or stations).
0 cafes and 3 restaurants sit in the same radius.
OpenStreetMap, 800 meters. Not a Walk Score license. More groceries than 0 of the other 19 areas in this city.
ACS 2024 5-year (2020-2024) · 6 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 southern T. More Caribbean grocers than cafes. Cost is the point relative to this Boston set. Mattapan Square is the errand. Weight family and budget, not a night out.
Part I is higher than West Roxbury. That is a count, not a personality. Hyde Park is the house neighbor. Dorchester is the larger official polygon to the east. Do not skip the page because the score is not a postcard.
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 Mattapan.
Last 90 days, snapshot 2026-09-01. Method.
Straight answers from the numbers on this page.
Mattapan is middle of the pack for Part I here (safety 53 vs city 50). BPD logged 4.1 violent and 10.3 property incidents per 1,000 residents — 14.4 combined. Visitors count in those numbers. This is not a judgment of who lives here.
ACS median rent is $1,700 — studios through large apartments mixed together. About 55% of households rent. Median home value is $549,567. Survey medians, not a listing you can message tonight.
Walk is 0 here vs 27 for the Boston set — you will likely drive or ride for a weekly shop. Inside 800 meters: 2 groceries, 0 cafes, 108 transit stops, 21 parks. Not a Walk Score license.
The scores lean family relative to this city set. Nearby school rating is 5.4 / 10. Median age is 38.7. That rating is not your assigned campus.
32 typical weekday minutes to Downtown. Not the app on your phone this hour. Other job centers are further down this page.
About 27,932 people. Median income $77K. 26% have a bachelor's or higher.
Hyde Park, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain sit closest on this map. If you are choosing between two official planning neighborhoods, start with Mattapan vs Hyde Park.
Closest on this schematic map, scored with the same published walkable weights as the Boston table. Distances here are not street geography.
Mattapan vs Hyde ParkMattapan vs RoslindaleMattapan vs Jamaica Plain
$2K ACS median rent
The largest official neighborhood in the set. Dot Ave, Savin Hill, Fields Corner, and Ashmont are searches inside one BPDA line. A median here hides a lot of different 10 p.m.s.
$1K ACS median rent
Dudley, Nubian Square, and a lot of city history in one official line. New infill sits next to older streets. Weight the numbers honestly; do not skip the page.
$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
Rozzie Square is the village. The Arnold Arboretum is the park you share with JP. More house than South End, less trip than West Roxbury.
$2K ACS median rent
The southern edge. More house than brick, more car than T. Readville and the river are the quieter searches. Downtown is a trip, not a walk.