Hotter than Tabasco sauce: the Boston RE market

TheRifleman said:
The demise of the Detriot looking like a slum is nothing more than bad Politics and Greed. Munipical pensions have bankrupted that city and have made it so undesirable to ever do business in the city for any new corporations to ever consider Detriot as a destination for their corporate headquarters. Detriot is seriously a perfect example of a FAILED GOVT EXPERIMENT.

This is exatly what is going on in Boston. The only difference is we have 2 x-Factors that actually create new innovation for the world.
MSFT and Facebook were innovated in Cambridge. Granted they decided to start their headquarters elsewhere.

Chicago will be the perfect example that even with a great city Illinois is DOOMED could possibly end up in worse shape than Detriot. Munipical Pensions in this corrupt city is going to bankrupt the entire state.
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Detroits problem was that it was once a city of roughly 1.8 million people that has been decamped due to the rapid decline of its one, major industry. Today, the city has roughly 700,000, but its' infrastructure is still designed to support the much larger city. There are now vast amounts of abandoned land not generating the tax revenue to pay the cops, firefighters who still need to patrol these areas. And yes, covering the pension obligations of the retirees who onced supported a city of 1.8 million is certainly a huge problem.

Despite Boston's ups and downs over the decades, our population has generally hovered in the 580,000 to 620,000 range. Right now the city's population is on the upslope, and it stands to reason that that will continue as Boston's infrastructure is well-suited toward the growing trend of people returning to cities to escape higher gas prices/vapid suburban life. Boston is also relatively tiny (48 land square miles) vs Detroit (138 land square miles). That land scarcity combined with those X factors of Harvard/MIT, colleges, medical communities...means the chance of a large-scale decamping leaving Boston with a ridiculously oversized infrastructure and vast swaths of abandoned, non-revenue producing properties, next to nill.
 
TheRifleman said:
Maybe your right.

But would BC, BU, Northeastern, Suffolk, Emerson, actually be good schools without Harvard or MIT located in this area. It seems these are alternative schools for the upper class since their kids weren't special.
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It's possible. But it is also just as possible that if Harvard and MIT didn't exist then it would just allow a void one of the other to develop in its place. As one said above, part of Boston's character is education. This value may mean another school may simply take the mantle instead.

At the very least, you have still note that the other schools still have endowments in the totaling together into the billions while bringing in thousands of students and research money. That alone should mean Boston would not be Detroit.

The worse case is a weaker Boston surviving on college money and historical-tourism money (No big tech renaissance, no big research hospitals, small finance industry only satelliting NYC). But even that is way more than what Detroit has.
 
Edward Burke said:
“They want to do a building that is higher than abutting buildings ... It’s too big and completely out of scale with the rest of the neighborhood. The other side of the street is zoned for taller buildings, not the Burger King side. It’s a completely different zoning area altogether.”
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We are arguing about sides of the street now? And like the developer said in the article, it's only a section of the tower. Would Eddy rather the entire building be 110', instead of a low rise section and a high rise?

I'm crossposting this in the 1350 thread so replys won't detract from the... discussion here.
 
FortPointGuy said:
Downside of a tabasco market? NIMBYs come out of woodwork:

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/r...nant-fights-forest-hills.html?s=image_gallery

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/r...24&u=lWyEwJiPY4yEq6xk9FZmew0PMOK&t=1374689084
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particularly ironic that a non-profit involved in helping people invest in community is attempting to stall a project that would give much needed life to that section of washington street - and I'm sure if they actually bought it they'd sit on it for years without doing anything. ugh.

Dear NACA, there's plenty of commercial space available a few blocks down - you probably could have leased space in arboretum place not so long ago after the owner told you that they were selling.
 
rinserepeat said:
particularly ironic that a non-profit involved in helping people invest in community is attempting to stall a project that would give much needed life to that section of washington street - and I'm sure if they actually bought it they'd sit on it for years without doing anything. ugh.

Dear NACA, there's plenty of commercial space available a few blocks down - you probably could have leased space in arboretum place not so long ago after the owner told you that they were selling.
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Reminds me of the "urban economist" on Facebook who was railing against the Congress St. garage project on the grounds that it would increase housing costs and cause gentrification.
 
Last month, Shen drafted a memo to the Zoning Board of Appeals stating that the BRA supports smaller sizes for all unit types near transit stops. In addition to 450-square-foot studios, it is also allowing one bedrooms to drop to 625 square feet from 750; and two bedrooms to 850 feet from 900 feet.

[...]

“So far we’re seeing those apartments rent for $2,100, $2,200, and $2,300 a month,” Shen said. “That’s beyond what everyone expected, so we have to have a better mechanism in place to ensure that the pricing is fair.”
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$2,100 for 625 square feet? What?!
 
This smaller living unit stuff is totally nuts to me, especially in light of the high cost of these units. There's plenty of room in this city to build many thousands of normal sized units if only the zoning would allow it.
 
^Sadly that seems to be barely part of the conversation. They should do some planning around transit stops and allow developers to do as of right zoning up to a height where people wont ask for variances. That way people will build but it won't necessarily be all top end luxury.
 
SO, how about those micro units the BRA is pushing, huh?
 
davem said:
SO, how about those micro units the BRA is pushing, huh?
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I am definitely the demographic they are shooting for and I have to say, I would love to live in a 450 square foot micro-apartment near transit in a lively neighborhood. For $900/month. For $2100+/month, somebody would have to be making $70,000+/year to afford it. Not exactly a 20-something's salary.
 
bigeman312 said:
I am definitely the demographic they are shooting for and I have to say, I would love to live in a 450 square foot micro-apartment near transit in a lively neighborhood. For $900/month. For $2100+/month, somebody would have to be making $70,000+/year to afford it. Not exactly a 20-something's salary.
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I agree, I'd enjoy living in a small apartment. It has that somewhat cozy feeling. I agree with the price though. Definitely outside my range, especially with student loans.
 
What is up with the City of Boston MeterMaids? Are they just giving bogus tickets now?

Last night I parked in a legit parking spot right before a loading zone. I got a $55 dollar ticket for parking in a loading zone at 8:15 PM. I could take a picture and bring it down to city hall but I don't feel like wasting time on this stuff.

Also I didn't even realize they work past 8 PM?
 
bigeman312 said:
I am definitely the demographic they are shooting for and I have to say, I would love to live in a 450 square foot micro-apartment near transit in a lively neighborhood. For $900/month. For $2100+/month, somebody would have to be making $70,000+/year to afford it. Not exactly a 20-something's salary.
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This is how I feel as well. Maybe even $1100 in a beautiful place with amenities as pictures in the article. But over 2g? Dats cray cray

For reference, I live in a recently renovated a 2 bed with central air, off street parking, a common back yard with a patio, dishwasher and w/d in unit. In a nice part of Brighton close to transit. For $1300.
 
bigeman312 said:
I am definitely the demographic they are shooting for and I have to say, I would love to live in a 450 square foot micro-apartment near transit in a lively neighborhood. For $900/month. For $2100+/month, somebody would have to be making $70,000+/year to afford it. Not exactly a 20-something's salary.
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Yeah, I would be barging down the door at $900 or even $1000- but if I was going to extend my price range to $2100, I'm pretty sure I could find something larger and nicer.

It seems like they're believing the size itself will be a draw (for the person who's rich and whose only possession is an iPad, no risk of losing it!) But as someone in her low 20's, as far as I can tell people in my friend group at least still often have others over and such, so I would say it's not so much that we don't want space as are willing to sacrifice it for other priorities- not the same at all.
 
novitiate said:
Yeah, I would be barging down the door at $900 or even $1000- but if I was going to extend my price range to $2100, I'm pretty sure I could find something larger and nicer.

It seems like they're believing the size itself will be a draw (for the person who's rich and whose only possession is an iPad, no risk of losing it!) But as someone in her low 20's, as far as I can tell people in my friend group at least still often have others over and such, so I would say it's not so much that we don't want space as are willing to sacrifice it for other priorities- not the same at all.
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Bingo.
 
^you can rent a nice place with 750 sq feet in the Backbay and South End for $2100 a month without a roommate. Only rich liberals who want to brag about how green they are will rent this kind of place. I also predict that the people who rent/buy micro units also can't stop talking about how they don't own a tv, even though they stream stuff off netflix and youtube.
 
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