Real $$ Estate $$

My sister and her hubby just sold their little 3 bedroom, one bathroom apartment for over 400,000 bucks. I think it doubled it's value in about 3 years.

Slap, try buying a house in Georgia. You could buy a big deluxe house for 300,000 there.

When we bought, we were thinking: cheap. And it was. I mean, it was nicer than East Cambridge, which we also looked at, but it was still barely out of student land. Now (and there's also been gentrification going on, on my street and up and down adjacent side streets) the place is out of reach. Nearly every day, you can see a van or truck for something like siding, window replacement, gutter cleaning, painting, wood floor restoration or the like.

We had no idea we were buying into Hipville. Perhaps the same will happen in 'pan?

I think Mattapan would be one of, or the last area to become the next Brighton. The economy would have to boom again to drive demand higher. Parts of Dorchester, and even Chelsea have gone up quite a bit, but Brighton is next to BU/BC/Harvard, ect., so it's attracting students and people with money. And it's all old houses, too. Although the foreign students have more money than most citizens. Driving brand new Mercedes, Porsches, ect.

Slappy, There's a positive side effect to the foreign students attending Harvard, because whether they realize it or not, they are being indoctrinated to American style democracy that they bring back to their own countries. They end up with some postive bias for American-style living, and they will be the ones that will eventually help guide their governments. The wealthier ones are always the ones that influence their government the most. Sorry for this side-track.

BTW, it's reported in today's local newspaper that million dollar home sales are on the increase in this area. Seems to indicate our economy is on the upswing.

Getcher tongue out of your cheek before you bite it off, c.i. Those are inflationary prices, not productivity. Well, it does show that someone still has that kind of money.

roger, I've bit my tongue so often, it doesn't hurt any more. LOL

How about the lovely brownstones over on lower Mass Ave that no one in their right mind would buy however, the locals bought in when it was cheap, did what they could when they could to fix em up, and now they have million dollar estates. Only problem is they have to pay property tax on that amount and lots cant do that. Also, they could sell however they cant afford the prices now and stay anywhere in the city limits.
You just dont know how many times in the last year Ive said i love my landlord-and how insane those words are however repeating them over and over tends to help...that and you know..housing prices.

Once a week the NY Times runs a feature on a certain style of house (e.g., an A-frame or one with turrets) and then shows examples in different part of the country. The differences in price are phenomenal. Beautiful houses (at least they look nice) costing under $150,000. Of course, you'd have to live in some of places listed above or in Upstate NY, but man. It's heart-breaking...

Part of the problem with the Boston area is that you have literally only half a city. The bay occupied the other half. As a result the population and businesses that in say Atlanta or St Louis would occupy a 360 degree arch around the center are crammed into half that space in Boston. As a result property prices are higher as there is more competition for less space.

Well yeah..that whole Atlantic Ocean puts a bit of a damper on the land situation.