Neighborhood · Ranked #15,862 of 84,120 nationally
Downtown Crossing Eviction Risk: Moderate , Boston
Tract 25025070302 ·
Suffolk County, MA · pop 1,771 · neighborhood within 0.6 mi
How risky is Downtown Crossing in Boston for landlords? Census tract 25025070302 scores 6.9/10, the Elevated tier. That is riskier than about 93% of US census tracts.
Rent eats 30% or more of income for 42% of renter households, a severe level, and 32% are severely burdened at 50% or more. Average rent runs $2,061 a month against an average household income of $121,250 a year, roughly 20% of income at the averages. About 61% of occupied units are renter-occupied, a renter-majority tract.
Risk score
5.9
Moderate
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 26%Stable renters 35%Owners 39%
Tract context
Occupied units1,118
Renter share61.3%
SVI overall0.34
Poverty rate21.8%
Median income$121,250
Percentile rank
Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.
Within neighborhood
63th percentile
#4 of 9 tracts In Downtown Crossing
Elevated
Within parent city
49th percentile
#106 of 206 tracts In Boston
Moderate
Within county
49th percentile
#120 of 234 tracts In Suffolk County
Moderate
Within state
78th percentile
#358 of 1,613 tracts In Massachusetts
High
Geographic context
Risk heat across Boston and the region
Centroid at 42.3500, -71.0694 · click any tract to drill in
Why Downtown Crossing scores 5.9
9 axes · 1 = landlord-friendly
Local political climate
Inherited from Boston
8.5
Regional political climate
2024 county presidential margin
8.2
State political climate
Massachusetts legislature & governorship
6.2
Economic stress
21.8% poverty · this tract
5.5
Supply constraint
$2,061 rent vs county FMR
2.3
Rent control risk
Inherited from Boston
8.0
Eviction process difficulty
State law sets the calendar
8.0
Tenant organizing strength
Inherited from Boston
8.5
Housing court bias
Inherited from Boston
8.0
How Downtown Crossing compares
Risk score vs. parent city, county, state.
CDC Social Vulnerability Index
SVI percentile: 34
CDC/ATSDR 2022. Higher = more vulnerable. National percentile across 84k tracts.
21%Socioeconomic
23%Household composition
45%Racial/ethnic minority
68%Housing & transportation
Historical context · 1930s redlining
HOLC grade: D: Hazardous (Redlined)
This tract sits within an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s. Grade D meant Black, immigrant, and poor neighborhoods systematically denied mortgage credit. These designations suppressed minority homeownership for generations and remain a documented predictor of present-day eviction filings and rent burden.
0%Grade A
0%Grade B
0%Grade C
49%Grade D · redlined
Source: Mapping Inequality (americanpanorama.org), 1935-1940 HOLC residential security maps, aggregated to 2020 census tracts by area share. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Eviction filings
Court-record eviction history
Court-validated eviction filings collected from county clerks and consolidated by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. Filing rate is filings per 100 renter households.1
Pandemic-era tracking (2020–2021)
25Total filings 2020-21
0.5Avg monthly (observed)
0.6Pre-pandemic baseline
0.84×Ratio to baseline
Monthly filings 2020–20212020-01-01 to 2023-11-01
Pandemic filings ran below baseline. Eviction Lab tracked Boston, MA as part of its 34-metro Eviction Tracking System.
Comparable tracts
Census tracts with similar eviction risk
Within Downtown Crossing. Closest by Eviction Risk Score.
Crude prevalence of conditions linked to housing loss. Source: CDC PLACES (cwsq-ngmh), 2023 model-based small-area estimates.
9.6%Housing insecurity
6.5%Utility-shutoff threat
11.9%Food insecurity
13.9%SNAP enrollment
7.4%Transit barriers
4.5%No health insurance
14.6%Frequent mental distress
27.1%Any disability
Analysis
What drives eviction risk in Downtown Crossing
The score leans hardest on tenant organizing strength at 8.5/10. That part comes from the wider legal climate rather than the tract itself. Statewide and court-level factors such as eviction-process speed and rent-control exposure are inherited from Boston eviction risk, while the economic and supply signals are measured at the tract level.
Set against its neighbors, this tract scores about the same as the Suffolk County average of 6.7 and above the Massachusetts statewide average of 5.9. Within its own county it reads on the riskier side for landlords.
During 2020 and 2021, eviction filings here ran at about 0.84x the pre-COVID monthly baseline, a little under the pre-pandemic norm.
In CDC survey modeling, about 9.6% of adults here said they could not pay rent or mortgage at some point in the past year, and 6.5% faced a utility shutoff threat, a common early warning before a filing.
For a landlord, this is a tract where process discipline pays off. Clean paperwork and steady screening keep the elevated risk manageable.
Frequently asked
About tract 25025070302
Q1
What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 25025070302?
Census tract 25025070302 in the Downtown Crossing neighborhood scores 5.9/10 (Moderate tier). The Eviction Risk Score blends state law, county filing rates, parent-city politics, and tract-specific rent-to-income ratios + poverty signals.
Q2
What is the average rent in tract 25025070302?
Median gross rent is $2,061/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 42% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3
What is the poverty rate in tract 25025070302?
21.8% of residents in tract 25025070302 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 1,771.
Q4
How socially vulnerable is tract 25025070302?
CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 34th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 21th, household 23th, minority 45th, housing 68th.
Q5
Is tract 25025070302 considered part of Downtown Crossing?
Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 25025070302 fall within Downtown Crossing (neighborhood centroid within 0.6 miles, OSM data).
Q6
Did eviction filings in tract 25025070302 drop during COVID?
Pandemic-era filings ran 0.84× the pre-COVID monthly baseline. Filings ran modestly below normal. Tracked by the Eviction Lab Eviction Tracking System (Boston eviction risk, MA), 2020-2021.
Q7
What share of households in tract 25025070302 struggle to pay rent?
About 9.6% of adults in this tract reported housing insecurity (could not pay rent or mortgage in the past 12 months), per the CDC PLACES 2023 model-based small-area estimate. 6.5% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q8
How does tract 25025070302 compare to Boston overall?
Tract 25025070302 scores 5.9/10, lower than the parent city of Boston at 7.1/10. City-scale signals (state law, local rent controls, court bias) are inherited from Boston eviction risk; what makes this tract different are its tract-specific economic stress and supply-constraint sub-scores.
Q9
Was tract 25025070302 historically redlined?
Yes. This tract sits inside an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s, with a dominant grade of D. 49% of the tract's area was rated D ("Hazardous"), the redlined tier. HOLC redlining systematically denied mortgage credit to Black, immigrant, and working-class neighborhoods and remains a documented predictor of present-day eviction filings, rent burden, and homeownership gaps. Source: Mapping Inequality (americanpanorama.org), Robert K. Nelson et al.
Sibling tracts
Highest-risk tracts in Boston
Top eight tracts in Boston ranked by composite eviction-risk score.