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Boston eviction research

City-level context for eviction filings in Boston, Massachusetts. Cited figures are labeled. Missing figures are omitted.

Boston, Massachusetts
Boston, Massachusetts

Court and process (high level)

An eviction in Boston is a court case, not a lockout. The owner files; the tenant has a chance to answer; a hearing may be set; a judgment, if entered, is not possession. A writ executed by the local sheriff, marshal, or constable is typically required before a setout. We do not guarantee any of those intervals.

Massachusetts summary process cases are heard in housing court where that court sits, or otherwise in district court.

This page does not claim EvictIQ has completed cases in Boston. Use it for process context and cited public data only.

Census Vintage 2024 population estimate: 673,458. Population is not an eviction statistic.

Primary county (largest Census place-part): Suffolk County. Places can cross county lines.

All of Massachusetts

Cited 2016 Eviction Lab figures

Judgments, not filings

2,314

Eviction judgments in 2016 (Eviction Lab city rankings). A judgment is an order that a renter leave — not a filing count.

Eviction rate

1.3%

Judgments per 100 renter households, 2016, Eviction Lab. This is a rate, not a ranking we computed from EvictIQ cases.

Source: Princeton Eviction Lab, 2016 city rankings extract, GEOID 2507000. Eviction Lab rankings. Filing counts for this city are not in that extract, so they are omitted.

Not legal advice. No tenant names, addresses, or case numbers. Self-help eviction is illegal.

Using this as research, not a hire form

Eviction Labs publishes geography and method. Eviction services — if you need them — live on sister sites, not as the point of these pages.