How My Housing Bubble Burst
I know — that was short-lived, huh?
Well, here's what happened.
I took this first-time homebuyer's class with the City of Boston, which was cool. But I realized immediately, as I'm sure I mentioned, that it'd be a couple of years before I could move ahead with any plans to buy. Several friends who have no reason to know anything about my personal finances urged me to go ahead, but trust me, it's not feasible for me right now.
Still I dove right into the real estate porn sites online, but the more I saw, the more effed-up the market here started to look. To an even greater degree than elsewhere, it's driven by investment here. This is what was meant by the mantra of the City of Boston course: "home ownership is the first step to wealth accumulation." Unfortunately, opportunities for people like me, who want to actually buy a place to live in, seem pretty scant in a market like this.
And everybody's on about the $8,000 tax credit, which will expire next month, but there's plenty of reason to believe that the tax credit may actually have contributed to recent bump in real estate prices in Boston. Whatever the cause, according to the Globe, the median condo price in Boston increased almost 17 percent over this time last year. It's still down around 12% from '08, apparently, but then prices were through the roof in '08.
All of this is good news for investors, who really have no right to complain, given their gains over the last decade, right? I mean, take the place I'm renting now, which my landlady is looking to offload. I don't blame her. She paid $110,000 for it back in '96. That's a ridiculous $100 per square foot in a neighborhood where condos are going for a median $565 per square foot today. I don't need to tell you that's more than a five-fold increase — again, great for investors! — over a period of fourteen years. The same period in which median wages — earned wealth, you might call it — stagnated (median income increased just 10% between 1996 and 2007, and has not been stellar since — wages eked out 1.5% growth in '09, the weakest year on record).
Yeah, get out your tiny violins. I know. Whatever. It is what it is. But I have to say it did get me to thinking about how I really want to live, what I wanna shoot for, and what I'm willing to settle for. And that's a good thing, right?
Like, for instance: I love the Fenway, but I'd love it more if it were a little less of a student ghetto. The ratio of gown to town is pretty skewed in these parts. There's almost nowhere you can run in the city limits (and beyond) to get away from them. If I'm going to buy I want to buy where there are other owner-occupants around me.
On the other hand, I don't really know if I want to deal with a condo association. I don't know anyone who has to that does. And do I really want to live in a tiny little flat for the next umpteen years? I was on tumblr the other day, and tumbled onto a site called "unhappy hipsters". The hipsters didn't interested me as much as the beautiful, mostly modular homes in which they languished in ennui.
Prefab is just plan fab these days. But then it only really works if you've got a spectacular view. And, boy, that'll cost ya.
There's always Detroit.
There's always dallas, puppy.
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There are whole swaths of Dorchester, Roslindale, Hyde Park and West Roxbury where the only students you'll ever see are munchkins getting on/off yellow buses :-).
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You should come back to Somerville! I bought a condo in a 17-unit building near Porter Square about 2 1/2 years ago and it's been great. I'm one of 3 trustees, and there has been very little controversy or drama about finances or improvement projects. The 3 trustees all pretty much see eye to eye, and the unit owners for the most part are very level-headed and easygoing. So it is possible to have a good condo experience! (Although we do still have one unit owner who is renting out her condo who is a bit on-edge, but we've learned how to deal with her simply by being very nice and very clear and not letting her get us riled up.) Overall, though, it beats apartment living IMO. People are much more responsible when they own their places, you have total control over your own unit, and you get to have a say as to what happens with common areas, the building itself, and the surrounding land.
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Hmm...just to add to the chorus, I'll continue to extol the virtues of Providence, RI: a compact, walkable/bikeable city full of gorgeous architecture (yes, some of it approaching Detroit status at the fringes) where a sunny East Side condo will cost you less than a basement dive in Allston or you could do what I did and become a semislumlord in a less fashionable place likely for well under $225K... There is the commute, of course, but Commuter Rail trains to S. Station are pretty frequent and $15.50 RT, cheaper with the monthly pass.
The place swarms with sexy scruffy hipsters, has something like eight thriving gay bars in walking distance of each other (gotta love the Mob), not to mention the (pretty skeevy - well the big one is skeevy, the little one is clean but underpopulated) two bath-houses if such amuse, but the whole city is pretty well mixed/gay-friendly, and still the land of the $3-4 beer and the $4 burger, etc., if one knows where to go...
I WAS going to post in the library blogpost, but PVD also threatened to close the branch libraries but, instead successfully spun them off on their own:
http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_library25_04-25-09_AJE3T9R_v12.3e68821.html (before story)
The fait accompli:
http://www.provcomlib.org/
Our mayor ain't MUCH better than Mumbles, but he's definitely better...
So, there 'tis...
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I purchased a place in the S.E. through the city's affordable housing program. At the time I worked at AIDS Action and my other half was a flight attendant. We got our 2 BR for $230K. Maybe you can look into a similar option if you qualify. It is a long process but considering how my story concludes - definitely worth it.
BosGuy
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I am definitely looking into the city's housing lottery and other "affordable" options, as well as thinking outside my current comfort zone about living in other milieux.
I'm about to sign a lease on a little flat through September 2011, so maybe 2012 will be my year to buy, if the world doesn't end first, which would be just my rotten luck.
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