Community Profile

Real estate prices and rents are up sharply in Allston

By Kathleen Howley, Globe Correspondent, 8/14/1999

Allston at a glance Settled: 1680s, annexed to Boston in 1874. Area: 2 square miles. Population: 35,000. Tax rate: $13.44 residential; $37.04 commercial. Median house price: $211,000. Form of government: Mayor, city council. Services: Massachusetts Electric, Boston Gas, city water and sewer. Public schools: Jackson Mann and Thomas Gardner elementary schools, Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Private schools: St. Anthony School. Public transportation: MBTA trolleys and buses. Cultural/recreational: West End House, Ringer Playground, Smith Playground, canoeing and sailing on the Charles River, MDC public park along the riverbank.

Allston has a reputation for being a cheap place to live. It's accessible by Green Line trolleys and MBTA busses. It is bounded on one side by Boston University and on the other side by Harvard University. Add all that together and it equals: students. Lots of them. [an error occurred while processing this directive]

But David Dologite, a project manager for the Allston Brighton Community Development Corp., said the perception of the neighborhood doesn't match with reality. Boston's extra-hot real estate market and the rising cost of on-campus housing is forcing rents in the neighborhood to skyrocket, he said. About one-quarter of the population is students who rent, meaning that the majority of residents are working families, young professionals or elderly people, said Dologite.

``There is a general impression that Allston is a neighborhood of students and affordable housing. But, that's wrong on two counts. First, there is a strong contingency of blue-collar and immigrant families who live here, and, second, the rents and real estate prices are rising at an alarming rate. It's tough to find cheap housing,'' he said.

Average rents in Allston have increased by more than 50 percent in the last six years, according to a recent study by the corporation. The rents for three-bedroom units -- the size that would be required by a family with several children -- have increased by more than 70 percent, Dologite said.

The home ownership rate in Allston is about 20 percent, compared to a 36 percent citywide rate, and that's not likely to improve, said Dologite. The median sales price for a single-family home in Allston increased from $180,000 in 1997 to $211,000 in 1998, and is expected to be about $250,000 this year, he said.

``Working families who want to raise their kids in the neighborhood are not going to be able to do so at a certain point. The cost of remaining here for renting or buying are going to force them out of the neighborhood, and probably out of the city of Boston,'' he said. Students often are being subsidized by parents who can afford to pay a share of a $2,000-per-month rent on a three-bedroom apartment, he said.

In order for a working family to pay that amount without paying more than 30 percent of its income for rent, the parents would need to earn $80,000 a year, said Dologite.

``There is a real fear that the neighborhood will become dominated by students and young, childless professionals. It's a concern because it could lead to instability. Those are people who stay here a few years and move on. The people who fight to keep the parks clean and the streets safe -- all those quality of life issues -- are the people who have roots here,'' he said.

The area was settled in 1680s by families who crossed the river from Cambridge. It was incorporated as the town of Brighton in 1807, and annexed to Boston in 1874, said William Marchione, curator of the Brighton-Allston Historical Society.

In 1867 postal service created a separate designation for the neighborhood and asked residents to pick a name. They chose Allston in honor of Washington Allston, a landscape painter who helped to inspire the Hudson River school of artists. Allston was a graduate of Harvard University and had lived directly across the river in Cambridge.

``The residents went through an entire evening of deliberation and were unable to agree to a name. In the end they turned to the Rev. Frederick Whiney, a leading citizen, to decide. He was an art lover, and suggested Allston, who had died about a quarter of a century before,'' Marchione said.

The name also was applied to the railway depot built in 1886. The building, a Richardsonian Romanesque structure that now houses the Sports Depot restaurant, is designated as a city landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission, said Marchione, a member of the commission.

``The railway was an important feature of the community for generations. It brought a lot of commerce and people through, and the tracks were the beginning of the physical separation of Allston from Brighton,'' he said.

Allston residents consider their neighborhood to be distinct from nearby Brighton, despite the fact that the names of the two are often linked as Allston-Brighton, said Bob Imperato, president of the Boston Realty Associates.

``They really are two different neighborhoods with two distinctive flavors. The people who live in Allston have a real community spirit and they don't want to be known by hyphenation,'' he said.

Imperato, who has been selling real estate in Allston for two decades, said a single-family property in North Allston is priced from the high $100,000s to the low $300,000s, and multi-families are priced from the low $200,000s to the high $300,000s. Real estate located near Boston University costs about 15 percent more, he said.