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Neighborhood · Ranked #14,308 of 84,120 nationally

Downtown Crossing Eviction Risk: Elevated , Boston

Tract 25025020302 · Suffolk County, MA · pop 1,031 · neighborhood within 0.3 mi

Census tract 25025020302 covers part of the Downtown Crossing area of Boston, MA, and scores 6.7/10 on landlord eviction risk. Population here is 1,031. Against Suffolk County at 47.0%, around a third of renters here are cost-burdened.

Risk score
6.7
Elevated
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 25% Stable renters 47% Owners 28%
Tract context
Occupied units631
Renter share71.6%
SVI overall0.07
Poverty rate8.2%
Median income$165,938

Percentile rank

Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.
Within neighborhood
13 th percentile
Rank, 13th percentileLowHigh
#8 of 9 tracts In Downtown Crossing
Very Low
Within parent city
21 th percentile
Rank, 21st percentileLowHigh
#164 of 206 tracts In Boston
Low
Within county
10 th percentile
Rank, 10th percentileLowHigh
#210 of 234 tracts In Suffolk County
Very Low
Within state
63 th percentile
Rank, 63rd percentileLowHigh
#604 of 1,613 tracts In Massachusetts
Elevated
Geographic context

Risk heat across Boston and the region

Centroid at 42.3593, -71.0640 · click any tract to drill in

Why Downtown Crossing scores 6.7

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
8.2% poverty · this tract
2.0
Supply constraint
$2,842 rent vs county FMR
5.0
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.
Downtown Crossing risk score vs. parent city / county / state6.7This tracttract 0203028.1Bostonparent city7.9Countyavg tract in county6.2Stateavg tract in state
CDC Social Vulnerability Index

SVI percentile: 7

CDC/ATSDR 2022. Higher = more vulnerable. National percentile across 84k tracts.

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.

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

Historic baseline (2000–2018)

  • 69Total filings over 5 yrs
  • 3.57%Avg annual filing rate
  • 5.6%Peak (2013)
  • 6Filings in 2016 (latest validated)
Filings by year 2012 to 2016
Year-by-year eviction filings in tract 25025020302
Filings dropped 67% over the past 5 months.

Pandemic-era tracking (2020–2021)

  • 33Total filings 2020-21
  • 0.7Avg monthly (observed)
  • 1.2Pre-pandemic baseline
  • 0.57×Ratio to baseline
Monthly filings 2020–2021 2020-01-01 to 2023-11-01
Monthly eviction filings vs pre-pandemic baseline

Pandemic filings ran far below baseline (moratorium effect). 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.

CDC PLACES 2023 · health & economic stress

Eviction-adjacent indicators

Crude prevalence of conditions linked to housing loss. Source: CDC PLACES (cwsq-ngmh), 2023 model-based small-area estimates.

Analysis

What drives eviction risk in Downtown Crossing

What pushes it up most is local political climate at 8.5/10. Average gross rent is $2,842, 32% above the Boston average.

Sitting well above the midpoint, tenant-organizing strength reads 8.5/10. 72% of occupied units are rented, so comparables are plentiful and vacancy risk is low, but a mispriced renewal loses the tenant to a building nearby.

The severe-burden share is 17%, and it is the single best predictor in this model of a filing that actually reaches judgment. Running hot, regional political climate reads 8.2/10. It sits 1.2 points below the Suffolk County average of 7.9.

SNAP participation runs 5.7% against 15.2% nationally. Adults with no health insurance runs 2.5% against 11.3% nationally.

The filing record is not thin: 69 evictions over 5 years of observation. Filings peaked in 2013 at 5.6% of renter households.

This ground was mapped D ("Hazardous") on the 1930s HOLC security maps for Boston. That grading determined who could get a mortgage, and its imprint on tenure and rent burden is still visible in the ACS data above. In a typical year about 3.6% of renter households face a filing.

Tract-level figures come from the ACS 5-year release and are rebuilt whenever that, the court-record feed, or the statutory ledger behind the score changes.

Frequently asked

About tract 25025020302

Q1

What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 25025020302?

Census tract 25025020302 in the Downtown Crossing neighborhood scores 6.7/10 (Elevated 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 25025020302?

Median gross rent is $2,842/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 35% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3

What is the poverty rate in tract 25025020302?

8.2% of residents in tract 25025020302 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 1,031.
Q4

How socially vulnerable is tract 25025020302?

CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 7th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 13th, household 2th, minority 23th, housing 41th.
Q5

Is tract 25025020302 considered part of Downtown Crossing?

Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 25025020302 fall within Downtown Crossing (neighborhood centroid within 0.3 miles, OSM data).
Q6

How many evictions are filed each year in tract 25025020302?

Princeton Eviction Lab recorded 69 eviction filings across 5 validated years in tract 25025020302 (2000-2018). The average annual filing rate is 3.57% of renter households, peaking at 5.6% in 2013. Source: Eviction Lab tract-validated 2024 release.
Q7

Did eviction filings in tract 25025020302 drop during COVID?

Pandemic-era filings ran 0.57× the pre-COVID monthly baseline. Filings dropped sharply, likely a moratorium effect. Tracked by the Eviction Lab Eviction Tracking System (Boston eviction risk, MA), 2020-2021.
Q8

What share of households in tract 25025020302 struggle to pay rent?

About 6.7% 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. 4.3% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q9

How does tract 25025020302 compare to Boston overall?

Tract 25025020302 scores 6.7/10, lower than the parent city of Boston at 8.1/10. 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.
Q10

Was tract 25025020302 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. 39% 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.

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