Hotter than Tabasco sauce: the Boston RE market

TheRifleman said:
The only thing I can't figure out is people couldn't afford real estate in 2008 at these price levels but now they can?
Click to expand...

The average 30 year fixed rate in 2008 was roughly 6%. Now, like you said, it's around 4%. That 2% difference can increase people's purchasing power by a lot of money! For me it added almost $100k to my purchasing power.

Obviously, when everyone can suddenly afford a lot more, sellers start to raise prices accordingly. It's questionable how much people's real purchasing power has increased, since lower interest rates have been offset by skyrocketing prices.
 
 
Even though all of these shiny new renderings have been "approved" most will not be built, at least not as presented.
 
bosdevelopment said:
Even though all of these shiny new renderings have been "approved" most will not be built, at least not as presented.
Click to expand...

With the economy improving, the old mayor leaving and lots of approvals coming before the uncertainty of the next mayor, relatively cheap financing, and a general movement of the young to urban living, IMO a lot of new buildings will go up before the momentum dies.

There are building booms in many US metros, for many of the same reasons as Boston. The data in the link is pretty recent.

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mhj45eegjl/introduction-51/
 
To clarify, Wired New York has 2 forums: NY Real Estate (for apartment buildings) and NY Skyscrapers and Architecture (for commercial development). There are obviously way more projects going on in NYC, but this forum is so great because the members here are far more active and dedicated to adding comments, photos, etc.
 
I feel like Wired New York has gotten a lot less active than it was 3+ years ago. Yes there's more projects, but I go there maybe once every month and can get caught up on new posts pretty darn quick. While here, I just went two days without checking in and there's an avalanche of new posts.
 
NYC is very well represented on skyscraperpage (and to a slightly lesser extent, skyscrapercity) while Boston barely has a presence on those sites. Of course, most of our projects have been too mediocre to bother reposting, although on rare occasions there are updates from myself, KZ, Beeline, and others. Generally no new information though. It seems like all the Boston forumers have found their way here.
 
DZH22 said:
NYC is very well represented on skyscraperpage (and to a slightly lesser extent, skyscrapercity) while Boston barely has a presence on those sites. Of course, most of our projects have been too mediocre to bother reposting, although on rare occasions there are updates from myself, KZ, Beeline, and others. Generally no new information though. It seems like all the Boston forumers have found their way here.
Click to expand...

I try to update skyscrapercity as often as I can. There are very few comments on project threads for Boston, though, I think you are right...most of what is proposed here isn't that exciting. It is also just easier to come here and get my Boston development fix.
 
kz1000ps said:
I feel like Wired New York has gotten a lot less active than it was 3+ years ago. Yes there's more projects, but I go there maybe once every month and can get caught up on new posts pretty darn quick. While here, I just went two days without checking in and there's an avalanche of new posts.
Click to expand...

Wired NY has also closed registration. I'm sure a lot of people have gone there with the intention of posting something, but discovered that they're not accepting new users. *cough*
 
Oh really? Weird. That place was my home on the interwebs for a solid 5+ years but I guess I have no idea what's going on there any more.
 
Arborway said:
Wired NY has also closed registration. I'm sure a lot of people have gone there with the intention of posting something, but discovered that they're not accepting new users. *cough*
Click to expand...

Any reason given as to why they wouldn't accept new users?
 
The whole Boston area is crazy. I moved into the city this month to rent. Buying was pretty much out of the question since everything decent was going for 10-40k over asking. Of course, the upside is that our house in Melrose sold (closing on Thursday) immediately for 10% over asking. We had 64 groups of people at the open house and got 13 offers, with the lowest at asking price.

With the market as it is, we plan to rent for a few years until it goes from thermonuclear to merely hot.
 
Detroit was all-in on the auto industry. It doesn't have any diversification of industry, nor does it have higher education to build a recovery around like Pittsburgh for example. A lot of its prime housing stock has been destroyed over the years. Most of its residents work outside the city, and people who are finding jobs in the city aren't choosing to live there. No easy balms to salve Detroit's wounds...
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
Detroit was all-in on the auto industry. It doesn't have any diversification of industry, nor does it have higher education to build a recovery around like Pittsburgh for example.
Click to expand...

Yeah, just off the top of my head, Boston has jobs in education, health care, biotech, tech, finance, tourism and some engineering in the metro area towns.
 
FenwayResident said:
... and some engineering in the metro area towns.
Click to expand...

I'll add that Boston metro area has a tremendous amount of defense industry and is one of main centers for microwave electronics in the world (think cell phones and satellites, not heating frozen burritos).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top