"Dorchester rediscovered as a good place to live." That was the headline on a long-ago real estate story in one of Boston's daily newspapers. Fact is, it appeared almost 25 years ago, in 1980, and it was one of the first salvos in the slow but inexorable climb to "respectability" for our town.

Location, location, location was the mantra of property owners - used as a measurement among real estate professionals to describe housing that is convenient to good schools, shopping, public transportation. And for a while, too long in fact, our Dorchester and Mattapan neighborhoods were out of fashion, due to many complex factors.

But today, in this fifth year of the new millennium, our neighborhoods have come back, all the way, and they offer some of the best values to be had in city living in this super-heated housing market that is Greater Boston today.

It was not that long ago that three deckers could be had for little money down and small monthly mortgage payments. A look back at a 1978 effort by Mayor Kevin White to market the attractions of this characteristic housing stock is revealing:

"Buying a triple decker can be relatively easy and make economic sense," the brochure stated. "The purchase price of a well-maintained triple-decker in Boston ranges from $15,000 to over $50,000, depending on location, rental income, amount of land, apartment size and other features."

That was then, 27 years ago. This is now: In today's special real estate supplement, we report that the median price of a three-family home last year in Dorchester was $510,000; single-family median price was $350,000, and two-familys sold for $440,000. In Mattapan, three deckers in 2004 commanded a median price of $490,000, with $295,00 for singles and $417,450 for two family homes. Across the board in the cities, residential selling prices showed an 11.8 percent increase. Pretty dramatic and certainly reflecting the wisdom of Mayor White's team that first began to market three-family homes.

It always must be said that high selling prices are great for sellers, and not good for first-time homebuyers. The question of affordable housing continues to be a compelling one for working class families. That said, our neighborhoods continue to be the most affordable places to live within the city, and that's a condition that needs to be preserved.

- Ed Forry

To our Subscribers

In recent weeks the Reporter offices have received a number of complaints from our paid subscribers about late delivery of this newspaper. Subscriber copies are always mailed on Thursday at 12 noon, entered as second class matter at the Boston Post Office. Subscriber copies should be delivered the next day, but we have received reports that some households in the 02125 postal district do not receive delivery until the following week.

We have made the problem known to postal officials, and this week they are instituting a procedure to find the source of the problem and make corrections.

We apologize for the problem, and we ask that subscribers with late or non-delivery issues contact us. Mail subscribers have paid for prompt delivery, and that's what they deserve.

-E. F.