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

Forest Hills Eviction Risk: Elevated , Boston

Tract 25025120104 · Suffolk County, MA · pop 2,341 · neighborhood within 0.6 mi

25025120104 is a census tract in the Forest Hills area of Boston, MA. It scores 6.7/10 for landlords. It is home to 2,341 residents. Cost burden runs roughly one in three here against 47.0% across Suffolk County.

Risk score
6.7
Elevated
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 16% Stable renters 33% Owners 51%
Tract context
Occupied units1,102
Renter share49.3%
SVI overall0.07
Poverty rate5.6%
Median income$142,885

Percentile rank

Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.
Within neighborhood
0 th percentile
Rank, 0th percentileLowHigh
#11 of 11 tracts In Forest Hills
Very Low
Within parent city
8 th percentile
Rank, 8th percentileLowHigh
#189 of 206 tracts In Boston
Very Low
Within county
16 th percentile
Rank, 16th percentileLowHigh
#196 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 42.3043, -71.1171 · click any tract to drill in

Why Forest Hills 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
5.6% poverty · this tract
1.4
Supply constraint
$2,469 rent vs county FMR
3.7
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 Forest Hills compares

Risk score vs. parent city, county, state.
Forest Hills risk score vs. parent city / county / state6.7This tracttract 1201048.1Bostonparent 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: 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)

  • 30Total filings over 5 yrs
  • 0.99%Avg annual filing rate
  • 1.3%Peak (2015)
  • 8Filings in 2016 (latest validated)
Filings by year 2012 to 2016
Year-by-year eviction filings in tract 25025120104
Filings climbed 300% over the past 5 months.

Pandemic-era tracking (2020–2021)

  • 6Total filings 2020-21
  • 0.1Avg monthly (observed)
  • 0.5Pre-pandemic baseline
  • 0.24×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 Forest Hills. 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 Forest Hills

Pulling hardest the other way is economic stress at 1.4/10. Running hot, local political climate reads 8.5/10. Sitting well above the midpoint, tenant-organizing strength reads 8.5/10.

13% are severely burdened past the 50% mark. That cohort absorbs no shock: one repair bill or one cut shift converts straight into arrears. It sits 1.2 points below the Suffolk County average of 7.9. Court records carry 30 eviction filings across 5 observed years.

Average gross rent is $2,469, 15% above the Boston average. Adults with no health insurance runs 3.2% against 11.3% nationally.

SNAP participation runs 7.8% against 15.2% nationally. The worst year on record was 2015, when 1.3% of renter households were served.

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.

These are ACS 5-year estimates; the score moves when the ACS, court-record, or statute inputs behind it move.

Frequently asked

About tract 25025120104

Q1

What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 25025120104?

Census tract 25025120104 in the Forest Hills 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 25025120104?

Median gross rent is $2,469/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 33% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3

What is the poverty rate in tract 25025120104?

5.6% of residents in tract 25025120104 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 2,341.
Q4

How socially vulnerable is tract 25025120104?

CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 7th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 5th, household 2th, minority 48th, housing 40th.
Q5

Is tract 25025120104 considered part of Forest Hills?

Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 25025120104 fall within Forest Hills (neighborhood centroid within 0.6 miles, OSM data).
Q6

How many evictions are filed each year in tract 25025120104?

Princeton Eviction Lab recorded 30 eviction filings across 5 validated years in tract 25025120104 (2000-2018). The average annual filing rate is 0.99% of renter households, peaking at 1.3% in 2015. Source: Eviction Lab tract-validated 2024 release.
Q7

Did eviction filings in tract 25025120104 drop during COVID?

Pandemic-era filings ran 0.24× 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 25025120104 struggle to pay rent?

About 8.4% 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. 5.3% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q9

How does tract 25025120104 compare to Boston overall?

Tract 25025120104 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 25025120104 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. 0% 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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