Waterside Place 1A | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

Everything in Boston is prime real estate based on the costs. And, waterside place is neither beacon hill nor the back bay. Yes, when you are selling an area as work/live/play, yes I expect the people who work there to be able to afford to live there.
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I agree that it's neither of those places and would add that it looks like shit to boot, but many of the units will have permanent, basically unobstructed views of the ocean. Waterfront living is prime real estate. By no means what some of the North End wharfs offer or what 22 Liberty on Fan Pier will be offering, but close enough.
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

After paying $4500.00/mo they get to pay their flood insurance too :)
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

The quality of life improvement of having a virtually non-existent commute is huge, and there are a lot of well-paying jobs in walking distance.
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

SeamusMcFly said:
No I lament the above point of view. Because it exists elsewhere and there is a precedent?

It's too much for too little. That's an opinion that I will continue to accept as fact. Whether someone has the means is not the point. Supply and demand, capitalism, whatever. We bitch about fully leased places with no lights on because they don't live there, these are what are being built. I barely consider myself middle class, but I have a hard time seeing upper middle class, and lower upper class affording things the way the keep going.

Quick math tells me $4,500 a month is $54k a year, which the old adage of rent/mortgage being 1/3 of your income, means you need to make $162k to live here. I know those numbers can be made to work. But, for two bedrooms, that's two people earning decent cake at $80k a year.

What should it cost? I can't answer that besides the what the market will bear blah blah blah.

Everything in Boston is prime real estate based on the costs. And, waterside place is neither beacon hill nor the back bay. Yes, when you are selling an area as work/live/play, yes I expect the people who work there to be able to afford to live there.
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You're thinking about it the wrong way. Say there are X number of units available on the waterfront (in Boston's case, X is very small). Lets say there are 10X number of people who would like to live on the waterfront. How do you decide which 10% gets to live there? Under the current capitalistic structure, we allocate it by pricing out the bottom 90%.

I'm not sure what other method we could possibly use to allocate limited housing. Perhaps have a state mandated maximum rent, and allocate units by lottery? I don't see that going over very well.

My point is: rather than artificially manipulating rent through laws, we should focus on building more units, such that X increases. This will decrease the ratio of limited housing to the total population - meaning that less people get priced out.
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

Not trying to sidetrack this thread but for comparison, I just received an email with prices at Watermark, in Kendall Square, Cambridge.

Jiminy Cricket - $2,352 for a 587-square foot studio?

Studio 537sf $2,352
One bed 718sf $2,955
Two bed 1107sf $3,970
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

Hey. I get all of the above. I understand it.

Doesn't mean I have to like it, and that it shouldn't change.

And def. not through laws. So if I came off that way, forget it.

Yeah Watermark is ridiculous as well. I'm there pretty much everyday because my gym is on the second floor.

The idea of pricing it for the 10% is silly though, because there is to be a bunch more in the pipeline following this turd. If you want to pay that much to be the first one in, by all means. Just feel like a schmuck when the place next door gets built, is nicer, and costs as much or less.

Anywho, enough out of me on the topic.
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

Maybe the rents are a bit high, but is making 160k really that far out of reality? I hardly grew up rich, but my father makes somewhere around 200k as a programmer, with no degree, started with the company at the bottom changing tape reels on mainframes. Say himself and my mother wanted to sell the house and move to boston, he could easially pay the rent. And they no longer have to deal with taxes, and can get rid of one of the cars, the lawnmower, and the bill from heating a 17th century colonial.
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

I had hoped more apartment buildings would be under construction by now because if they haven't broken ground I fear developers will put off building due to the increase in supply.

Another couple thousand apartments in Boston Proper would certainly alleviate some of the pressure on prices.

There was a quote somewhere yesterday that the vacancy rate in Boston (might have been Greater Boston, though) is 3.8% or so. I remember reading once that a vacancy rate of 4% or so is considered "healthy" - supply and demand being met.

Of course, even if it's just "Boston", there are inequities - some neighborhoods with an abundance of apartments, others with few choices (at least for the "middle class").
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

davem said:
Maybe the rents are a bit high, but is making 160k really that far out of reality? I hardly grew up rich, but my father makes somewhere around 200k as a programmer, with no degree, started with the company at the bottom changing tape reels on mainframes. Say himself and my mother wanted to sell the house and move to boston, he could easially pay the rent. And they no longer have to deal with taxes, and can get rid of one of the cars, the lawnmower, and the bill from heating a 17th century colonial.
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Making $200k/yr does make you rich. Very few individuals of the total population make $160k/yr. Two income households are lucky if they make that.
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

BussesAin'tTrains said:
Making $200k/yr does make you rich. Very few individuals of the total population make $160k/yr. Two income households are lucky if they make that.
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Bussses there is rich and there is RICH --- and its all relative -- it depends where you are
In Metro DC the average Fed employee's salary is now over $100k

My personal experience with the location effect took place a few years ago [30] -- I was interviewing for an Ast Prof position at U. Wisconsin Madison -- when the discussion with the department head got around to housing it went like this:

Dept. Head -- most young Ast. Profs chose to rent at first -- Madison is very expensive relative to the rest of Wisconsin

Prospective Ast Prof -- I've got a house in Austin TX that I think I can sell for $120k -- [full disclosure] I had bought it new construction 2 years before for $63k

Dept. Head -- Jaw Dropping to Floor -- In that case you can buy the Governors Mansion

I looked in the Sunday paper and sure enough they were advertising Executive Homes [3 car garages, sub Zero Built-in appliances] in a fancy new development for $150k

Boston, DC, Bay Area and a handful of other places are in an alternative universe compared to the rest of the country where you can still buy a nice relatively new house for $150k

In Lexington just down the street a house was just purchased for $650 and torn down to use the lot for a McMansion
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

BussesAin'tTrains said:
Making $200k/yr does make you rich. Very few individuals of the total population make $160k/yr. Two income households are lucky if they make that.
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Well shit... I guess my world just turned over.


It's a metro NY salary, got lucky learning SAP when it first came out and then took over the world, and he's been with the company since 83 I think? Idunno, my dad must have a hoard of money somewhere then, because I don't know why we've been doing work on our own cars and house my whole life.

What the hell is this thread about again? Oh yeah, WP. It sucks.
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

davem said:
What the hell is this thread about again? Oh yeah, WP. It sucks.
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Wait, I thought this thread was about Old Economy Steve

5a24e6d5d897c3bf0b1b46aeaad3c343b43de160473b079798d1c18567696f93.jpg
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

It's hideous.
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

Isn't there another building site immediately adjacent? Perhaps they didn't spent a lot on this part of the builidng because it will be covered up in another few years?
 
Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

Looks like it belongs in the Soviet Union or could be something still standing from the Chernobyl disaster.
 
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Re: Waterside Place | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

In Soviet Russia, buildings call you ugly.
What a country.
 
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