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Neighborhood · Ranked #12,481 of 84,120 nationally

Dorchester Center Eviction Risk: Elevated , Boston

Tract 25025092200 · Suffolk County, MA · pop 3,500 · neighborhood within 0.4 mi

Tract 25025092200 sits in the Dorchester Center area of Boston eviction risk, MA, carrying an eviction-risk score of 7.1/10. It is home to 3,500 residents. Pulling hardest the other way is supply constraint at 1.1/10.

Risk score
7.1
Elevated
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 15% Stable renters 20% Owners 65%
Tract context
Occupied units1,240
Renter share35.6%
SVI overall0.61
Poverty rate11.1%
Median income$107,273

Percentile rank

Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.
Within neighborhood
0 th percentile
Rank, 0th percentileLowHigh
#6 of 6 tracts In Dorchester Center
Very Low
Within parent city
36 th percentile
Rank, 36th percentileLowHigh
#133 of 206 tracts In Boston
Low
Within county
35 th percentile
Rank, 35th percentileLowHigh
#153 of 234 tracts In Suffolk County
Low
Within state
67 th percentile
Rank, 67th percentileLowHigh
#526 of 1,613 tracts In Massachusetts
Elevated
Geographic context

Risk heat across Boston and the region

Centroid at 42.2950, -71.0662 · click any tract to drill in

Why Dorchester Center scores 7.1

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
11.1% poverty · this tract
2.8
Supply constraint
$1,743 rent vs county FMR
1.1
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 Dorchester Center compares

Risk score vs. parent city, county, state.
Dorchester Center risk score vs. parent city / county / state7.1This tracttract 0922008.1Bostonparent city7.9Countyavg tract in county6.2Stateavg tract in state
CDC Social Vulnerability Index

SVI percentile: 61

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

Historical context · 1930s redlining

HOLC grade: C: Definitely Declining

This tract sits within an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s. Grade C meant mixed-race / working-class neighborhoods rated as risky. 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)

  • 141Total filings over 5 yrs
  • 5.50%Avg annual filing rate
  • 6.7%Peak (2013)
  • 25Filings in 2016 (latest validated)
Filings by year 2012 to 2016
Year-by-year eviction filings in tract 25025092200
Filings stayed roughly flat over the past 5 months.

Pandemic-era tracking (2020–2021)

  • 57Total filings 2020-21
  • 1.2Avg monthly (observed)
  • 2.4Pre-pandemic baseline
  • 0.52×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 Dorchester Center. 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 Dorchester Center

24% are severely burdened past the 50% mark. That cohort absorbs no shock: one repair bill or one cut shift converts straight into arrears. Running hot, local political climate reads 8.5/10.

On the high side, tenant-organizing strength reads 8.5/10. Average gross rent is $1,743, 19% below the Boston average. Princeton's Eviction Lab logged 141 filings here across 5 tracked years.

Against the Suffolk County average of 7.9, this tract reads safer for landlords by 0.8 points. Filings peaked in 2013 at 6.7% of renter households. This ground was mapped C ("Definitely Declining") 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 5.5% of renter households face a filing. On the national scale it lands near the 85th percentile of the 84,120 tracts scored.

CDC social-vulnerability scoring puts the tract at 6.5/10. Statewide the MA average is 6.2, so this tract runs 0.9 points hotter.

Rent takes 30% or more of income for 43% of renters. Annual rent works out to 19% of average household income of $107,273.

36% of occupied units are renter-occupied.

All figures here are ACS 5-year estimates for this tract, refreshed as the underlying releases land.

Frequently asked

About tract 25025092200

Q1

What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 25025092200?

Census tract 25025092200 in the Dorchester Center neighborhood scores 7.1/10 (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 25025092200?

Median gross rent is $1,743/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 43% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3

What is the poverty rate in tract 25025092200?

11.1% of residents in tract 25025092200 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 3,500.
Q4

How socially vulnerable is tract 25025092200?

CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 61th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 38th, household 72th, minority 79th, housing 65th.
Q5

Is tract 25025092200 considered part of Dorchester Center?

Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 25025092200 fall within Dorchester Center (neighborhood centroid within 0.4 miles, OSM data).
Q6

How many evictions are filed each year in tract 25025092200?

Princeton Eviction Lab recorded 141 eviction filings across 5 validated years in tract 25025092200 (2000-2018). The average annual filing rate is 5.50% of renter households, peaking at 6.7% in 2013. Source: Eviction Lab tract-validated 2024 release.
Q7

Did eviction filings in tract 25025092200 drop during COVID?

Pandemic-era filings ran 0.52× 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 25025092200 struggle to pay rent?

About 15.9% 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. 10.1% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q9

How does tract 25025092200 compare to Boston overall?

Tract 25025092200 scores 7.1/10, 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 25025092200 historically redlined?

Yes. This tract sits inside an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s, with a dominant grade of C. 4% 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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