Back Bay.

Back Bay is the Boston of postcards: block after block of Victorian brownstones on a flat, orderly grid, the shaded Commonwealth Avenue Mall running down the middle, Newbury Street's shops and cafes one block over, and the Charles River Esplanade along the top. The neighborhood was built on filled land in the decades after the Civil War, and its architecture has been protected long enough that whole streetscapes remain intact — which is precisely why demand never fades.

The market ranges wider than visitors assume: classic bowfront condos carved from single brownstones, full-floor renovations, penthouses in the towers around Copley Square, and a handful of intact single-family townhouses that trade quietly at the top of the market. Back Bay and South Station commuter hubs, the Green and Orange Lines, and walkable everything make a car optional. Back Bay is Boston at its most iconic — for the citywide view, visit our Boston page.