This is not red lining, it's selecting hotter markets.

Hyde Park, Dorchester, Milton (maybe), Watertown, Quincy (depending on the part given the size, you want closer to the city or a Red Line stop).If you have the money and/or the ability to renovate you could take on a beat up property.

If you want to run your rental business on the financial redline and be 2 months of vacancies away from bankruptcy, by all means go for it.

@Peter Mckernan is aware I am sure, that stating "This is a Bad area and you should not consider it" is known as "Red Lining" and specifically outlawed at lease in Calif.To avoid this exposure, as a buyer, you can always ask something likewhere are the better schools?

Are you aware of the Hidden Red LIne Properties that are on a map with the Public Works Department?

Most successful wholesalers of residential property concentrate in the areas where the real estate brokers don't function well - "ugly" houses, those that need extensive renovation, low priced homes not worth the realtors time or energy, and those homes in certain "redlined" neighborhoods where the major real estate brokers choose not to operate.

If you start cheating the system (borrowing for a down payment on a loan, and then lying about it) you jump head first into the red line of VERY HIGH RISK INVESTING.

I wouldn't argue that there may be some de facto discrimination in some areas (i.e. difficulty getting a bank loan or financed within certain areas, aka "redlining"), but there are too many examples of people that knew that RAF @Alexander Felice's claim of "Broke is a choice" is true - many of them right here on this board - for this hypothesis to be true.

@Mary Mitchell if interest rates are lower in nice areas would that violate redlining laws?  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining