NEMA Boston | 399 Congress St. | Seaport

NEMA Boston is advertising its apartments with some availability on 12/1/2019.

Studios: $2555-3185
1-beds $3130-4270
2-beds $4640-5680
3-beds $6560-8770
 
Jesus, imagine being able to afford $9000 a month on rent. Even if I could I would never.
 
That seems to be the going rate on the new rental buildings in Boston. Proto in Kendall is also super-pricey. It speaks to the lack of new, full service, managed buildings in Boston, even with all the new construction over the past decade as well as the pent up demand. This will probably fill up fast.
 
stick n move said:
Jesus, imagine being able to afford $9000 a month on rent. Even if I could I would never.
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Czervik.Construction said:
That seems to be the going rate on the new rental buildings in Boston. Proto in Kendall is also super-pricey. It speaks to the lack of new, full service, managed buildings in Boston, even with all the new construction over the past decade as well as the pent up demand. This will probably fill up fast.
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This is likely mostly tech/fintech workers getting paid boatloads of money. Also, for most of those multi-bed units are probably not being rented by a single person at that rate, but likely multi-person, non-familial households (working professionals with roommates). There's plenty of high-paid workers in the Seaport and financial district who can afford to pay these rates for the convenience of living close to work.

For the upper end of the 1-bed units, as a 2-income household (e.g. a couple), each member would only need to make about $77,700 in take-home pay annually to afford splitting the rent (assume max 33% of take-home for housing expenses per HUD recommendation). That's the typical income of most white-collar mid-level management jobs with 10+ years experience as far as I've seen.

For the upper end of the 3-bed units, as a 3-income household (e.g. three roommates), each member would need to make $106k in take-home pay annually to afford splitting the rent. Based on what I've heard from friends who work for the big tech companies as software engineers, this is not too far from what they make. I have a friend who's not working and still riding on his savings from having worked at Microsoft and Google and can afford splitting his rent with his girlfriend at Downtown Crossing.

These people are out there, but maybe not in the social circles of the folks most active in housing issues/acutely affected by rising rents.
 
DigitalSciGuy said:
This is likely mostly tech/fintech workers getting paid boatloads of money. Also, for most of those multi-bed units are probably not being rented by a single person at that rate, but likely multi-person, non-familial households (working professionals with roommates). There's plenty of high-paid workers in the Seaport and financial district who can afford to pay these rates for the convenience of living close to work.

For the upper end of the 1-bed units, as a 2-income household (e.g. a couple), each member would only need to make about $77,700 in take-home pay annually to afford splitting the rent (assume max 33% of take-home for housing expenses per HUD recommendation). That's the typical income of most white-collar mid-level management jobs with 10+ years experience as far as I've seen.

For the upper end of the 3-bed units, as a 3-income household (e.g. three roommates), each member would need to make $106k in take-home pay annually to afford splitting the rent. Based on what I've heard from friends who work for the big tech companies as software engineers, this is not too far from what they make. I have a friend who's not working and still riding on his savings from having worked at Microsoft and Google and can afford splitting his rent with his girlfriend at Downtown Crossing.

These people are out there, but maybe not in the social circles of the folks most active in housing issues/acutely affected by rising rents.
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Good post! But don't forget lawyers!

The starting market rate salary of large law firms in Boston for first year associates (i.e. right out of law school) is $190,000 before bonus. For mid-size firms, it's anywhere from $120,000 - $170,000. There are over a thousand "biglaw" jobs in downtown, Seaport, and Back Bay. These rents are absolutely do-able on those salaries, especially for couples.
 
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JohnAKeith said:
NEMA Boston is advertising its apartments with some availability on 12/1/2019.

Studios: $2555-3185
1-beds $3130-4270
2-beds $4640-5680
3-beds $6560-8770
Click to expand...


I suspect the 2 beds will drop. Those are way over the seaport market. I've lived in 3 Seaport buildings, 2 beds and 1s....Never paid close to $4600. More supply coming online, so we will see if they can hold those prices.
 
A lot of these big, managed lux rentals require 40X rent for salary requirements. So, 40X $3500 is $140K. A 1 bed should not be a problem for a single person in tech, law, consulting (post b-school), and fin service. Even easier for a couple. At 40X $5000 for a 2 bed, a couple making $200K can pull that off. Probably not to hard to find people raking that in in Boston.
 
In my experience, the 3-bedrooms never rent out close to list price because there aren't a lot of people who want to spend that much who want to live in these apartments - they'll buy instead or take short-term housing if they're coming temporarily. Developers are pressured to include "family-sized units" by the city & communities. Developers include them even though they'd want to have more one and two beds.

If these were "true" three-beds, instead of two-beds with den, they might actually rent. I had one person who was looking for a three-bedroom for him, his wife, and their child, with a budget up to $10,000 but the only availability in downtown Boston was smaller than they wanted. It was crazy and I cried when he didn't rent.

stick n move said:
Jesus, imagine being able to afford $9000 a month on rent. Even if I could I would never.
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I've seen apartments rent out at those listed numbers, but I agree with you that it would not be the "net effective". These places will throw in 1 or 2 months free rent so it appears cheaper, thus more attractive to renters.

JohnAKeith said:
In my experience, the 3-bedrooms never rent out close to list price because there aren't a lot of people who want to spend that much who want to live in these apartments - they'll buy instead or take short-term housing if they're coming temporarily. Developers are pressured to include "family-sized units" by the city & communities. Developers include them even though they'd want to have more one and two beds.

If these were "true" three-beds, instead of two-beds with den, they might actually rent. I had one person who was looking for a three-bedroom for him, his wife, and their child, with a budget up to $10,000 but the only availability in downtown Boston was smaller than they wanted. It was crazy and I cried when he didn't rent.
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Czervik.Construction said:
A lot of these big, managed lux rentals require 40X rent for salary requirements. So, 40X $3500 is $140K. A 1 bed should not be a problem for a single person in tech, law, consulting (post b-school), and fin service. Even easier for a couple. At 40X $5000 for a 2 bed, a couple making $200K can pull that off. Probably not to hard to find people raking that in in Boston.
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Czervik -- Starting salary for a Google or Amazon type of person with a freshly minted Engineering degree can top $125k == $10k/month -- that makes a studio easy to afford and even a 1 bedroom
Take someone with a Masters and 5 years experience working for a Google / Amazon type of company or someone with a Ph.D. and requisite post doc at a U being hired into industry -- in something like AI and they can start cashing $15k monthly checks

Similar in the heavy-duty Bio R&D
Thus imagine a couple of such "studs" perhaps one working for Google in Cambridge and one working for Amazon in Seaport -- they could be bringing in $20k - 25K/ month after all the stuff is deducted

The BIG GORILLA in the corner is --- suppose such a young and brimming with talent and enthusiasm couple -- has a kid -- the first 1-5 years they probably stay in their 2 / 3 bedroom in the city with day care as an added expense

But what happens when the kid is ready for real school -- the lure of a house in suburbs is still very strong at that point
 
@whighlander you bring up an excellent point - rent with a couple both with high paying jobs, the rent is no problem. Even a newborn. Lots of friends will keep 1 br with a newborn, then sale up to a small 2 br with a second kid, but this is when the kids are toddlers. Then comes the nanny, who likes cash, which is $3-5K per month and daycare which can be $30K per child per year, and yes, city outskirts and the burbs become very enticing. So, the 3 br apartments in these buildings are a bit of a wild card.

whighlander said:
The BIG GORILLA in the corner is --- suppose such a young and brimming with talent and enthusiasm couple -- has a kid -- the first 1-5 years they probably stay in their 2 / 3 bedroom in the city with day care as an added expense

But what happens when the kid is ready for real school -- the lure of a house in suburbs is still very strong at that point
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To me, all this train of talk reveals is the vastly different worlds people are living in only blocks apart from each other.
 
Good-looking choice with the frosted glass panels for the mechanicals
 
JohnAKeith said:
In my experience, the 3-bedrooms never rent out close to list price because there aren't a lot of people who want to spend that much who want to live in these apartments - they'll buy instead or take short-term housing if they're coming temporarily. Developers are pressured to include "family-sized units" by the city & communities. Developers include them even though they'd want to have more one and two beds.

If these were "true" three-beds, instead of two-beds with den, they might actually rent. I had one person who was looking for a three-bedroom for him, his wife, and their child, with a budget up to $10,000 but the only availability in downtown Boston was smaller than they wanted. It was crazy and I cried when he didn't rent.
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@ $10k/month, I'd definitely rather buy.. and I'd assume most others would as well, unless they are truly transient with no plans to stay in the state >3yrs or so?
 
jl326 said:
@ $10k/month, I'd definitely rather buy.. and I'd assume most others would as well, unless they are truly transient with no plans to stay in the state >3yrs or so?
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Only one of the three bedroom units is close to $10k($8770). The others range from $65-6800. Good luck finding a three bedroom in the Seaport(or close) in a newer full service building for that mortgage payment(without putting $3m down that is).
 
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