Housing in Roxbury

Local Schools — Dining — Featured Listings

Roxbury is one of twenty-one official neighborhoods of Boston and proclaims that it “serves as the heart of Black culture in Boston.” “Rocksberry” is noted for its hilly geography and the many large outcroppings of Roxbury puddingstone, which was quarried for many years and used in the foundations of a large number of houses in the area. It is dotted with impressive parks, from the hilltops to hidden coves. Franklin Park sits at Roxbury’s southern edge and contains bike and walking trails, a golf course, and the Franklin Park Zoo. The Southwest Corridor Park and South Bay Harbor Trail are two linear parks with bike paths through or along green spaces and connect the heart of Roxbury with Jamaica Plain, the South End, and Boston Harbor..

In keeping with the “blackness” theme, Boston renamed Dudley Square, Nubian Square. It is a transportation hub, serving as home to Nubian Station — also formerly known as Dudley Station — a substantial bus terminal and terminus for the MBTA‘s Silver Line to provide commuters with easy access to downtown and Logan International Airport. Additional service provided by the Orange Line as well as tons of bus routes make it easy to live without a car. 

Access Roxbury’s official neighborhood info here. Also, it is always wise to check for reported criminal activity wherever you plan on buying/living. The Boston Police have a web page dedicated to Roxbury which you can access for their latest news. To keep up with daily goings on you can check in online with Newsbreak, the Boston Globe, and the Boston Herald. The local neighborhood web site was changed over to a Facebook page and is worthwhile perusing. There are other additional pages and groups for Roxbury on Facebook.

Area Schools

Roxbury lies in the Boston Public School district. Its transportation policies are outlined here.
Great Schools provides ratings for most schools in the United States. Below, you can see what schools are near the address you are thinking of buying and then compare it to other neighboring schools.

If you have a specific property in mind that you think you might like to buy, The City of Boston maintains a database for the City Assessor which you can access to see what value the City gives the property and what the annual taxes are. Boston does offer a residential tax break for primary residences for which you might need to apply after your purchase.

There might only be a couple of sales per month of single-family detached homes in Roxbury. The preponderance of sales is of condominiums and attached townhomes/duplexes. In fact, there are likely more multi-family home sales than detached single-family homes in the same time period. Single family sales have been running from $166,000 for a small, affordable income attached home in good condition to $1,428,500 for a large, renovated house, whereas condos are offered for sale from $187,000 for an affordable housing unit to $1,425,000 for a 1/2 duplex. The multi-family properties have been running from $500,000 to $2,375,000. Rentals in the area run from $1,450 to $6,000. Of course, pricing for sales and rentals varies depending upon size, location, and amenities.

Real estate sales and pricing are very fluid and can fluctuate in a matter of hours because homes come on and off the market daily… even hourly. The following chart is a visual representation of the cyclical nature of real estate and compares the ups and downs between Roxbury to the ups and downs of the entire city of Boston. The taller the column the better it is for buyers. The shorter the column the better it is for sellers. Hence 2007 was the best time for a buyer to buy in Roxbury, while 2020 was a great year for sellers. However, buyers will be happy to know that the graphic below indicates a weakening seller’s market for both Roxbury and the rest of Boston.

This next chart shows the number of sales occurring in Roxbury month-to-month, year-to-year since 2018 and provides you a historical overview of the best times to sell – months with the greatest number of sales (spring and fall) – and the best times to buy – months with the fewest number of sales (summer and winter). CAVEAT: there are usually more houses to choose from in the first half of the year.