Community Profile

By Kathleen Howley, Globe Correspondent, 2/05/2000

East Boston at a glance Area: 5 square miles Population: 32,000 Tax rate: $13.15 residential, $34.21 commercial Average single-family: $130,400 Average multifamily: $180,700 Form of government: Boston mayor, city council. Services: Boston Gas, Boston Edison, city water and sewer Public schools: Seven elementary schools, two middle schools, one high school Cultural/recreational: East Boston Yacht Club, Suffolk Downs race track, Belle Island Reservation, Constitution Beach, Memorial Stadium, several parks and playgrounds.

It's a simple point, but it's one that has eluded many Boston-area real estate watchers, said Luis A. Gonzalez, an East Boston broker. [an error occurred while processing this directive]

"The view of the Boston skyline from East Boston is much better than the view of East Boston from downtown or the North End," said Gonzalez, owner of Re-Max Inter-Group.

And, he said East Boston has something else that can't be found in the neighborhoods of downtown Boston: affordable real estate.

"If you want to spend $180,000 for a single-family, you'll be looking near the top of the market in some of the nicest areas. You can't say that in downtown Boston," he said.

Of course, East Boston has drawbacks. First on the list is a big and noisy neighbor - Logan International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the country. It takes up more than half of the land space on the five-acre East Boston peninsula.

And, many streets of East Boston can't rival the architecture and the ambiance found in Back Bay or the North End.

But some can, said John LaPlaca, who has lived in "Eastie" since he was 10 years old.

"There are some parts of East Boston that have the same feeling as Back Bay - old houses with wrought iron railings," he said.

There is, for example, Jeffries Point, on the waterfront. And, there is also Eagle Hill, an area with many historic 19th-century houses, including the Greek Revival home constructed in 1844 by naval architect Donald McKay, who designed and built many famous "Yankee Clippers" at his shipyard on the East Boston waterfront.

While values in less-desirable neighborhoods have appreciated only modestly, some areas of East Boston have seen dramatic increases, said LaPlaca, a consultant with Realty Ventures, a real estate investment group.

"Most of the development now is in the Maverick Square area, heading toward Jeffries Point," said LaPlaca, who lives in Jeffries Point.

Many properties in his neighborhood exchange hands without ever reaching the open market, he said.

"Parts of Jeffries Point are untouchable. There are lots of inside deals going on, a lot of it from outside investments. I've seen houses appreciate from 30 to 40 percent within a few months," he said.

Some people predict a transformation in East Boston akin to what happened in Charlestown and the South End, but don't hold your breath, warned Deborah Taylor, president of LINK, a Boston listing service.

"I hear people saying that it's going to be the next Charlestown, but we have not seen that happening yet. If it is happening, it is in its very early stages," she said.

The super-heated market in Boston's downtown neighborhoods probably will fuel the demand, she said.

"As people are priced out of other markets, it is an affordable alternative, but it has not developed yet. It's in that early stage where people are buying the three-families and starting to convert them to condominiums," she said.

For the community to sustain a growth in values it will require an influx of owner-occupants, she said.

"When Charlestown and the South End shifted, it was a shift from investors to owner-occupants. The same thing is going to have to happen in East Boston. Investors buying up properties can inflate prices for a time, but it's when you have people buying and fixing up their own homes that neighborhoods really come together," she said.

For Boston's first 200 years, the five islands that became East Boston were used for farming and grazing. In 1833 General William H. Sumner formed the East Boston Company to make five islands into one and fill it with gracious mansions for wealthy Boston families eager, in those days before air conditioning, for cool ocean breezes.

To a certain extent, he succeeded. Many of the houses were built. But as thousands of newly arrived Europeans settled in East Boston and found jobs in the waterfront industries, many of the mansions were torn down and replaced with wooden tenement buildings.

In 1840, the wharves of East Boston became the Boston terminal for the London-based Cunard line, and other steamship companies followed.

The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service set up shop in one of the brick warehouses that line the waterfront. The number of immigrants processed in East Boston was among the largest on the Eastern Seaboard.