MA Real Estate is CRAZY (Boston, Cambridge: credit, buying a house, job market)

[catchit111]

or look at restaurants - there are many of them around opening up. how do these cooks survive at minimum wage pay? NYC has a similar problem where people have to commute for hours to come to min. wage work. pure insanity.

Originally Posted by NickL28

Speaking of Dunkin Donuts (and similar type businesses), how does someone (or someone who appears over the age of say 20)survive on such a job working at such a place. Even at $15 an hour the states minimum wage the math doesn't work unless the worker has a spouse who is say a union electrician in Boston for example. I wonder the same thing about people who seem content working retail in the outer Boros of NYC where it costs a minimum of $2000 a month to rent a studio apartment in the Bronx now

[catchit111]

Originally Posted by tysmith95

Heroin is a problem everywhere.

well in Massachusetts its pretty bad. Seems like we will be going SF route crime wise too.



they are considering safe injection sites for heroin users. which is a good thing (better than having folks self inject and overdose at your favorite local dunkin donuts bathroom).

[bugelrex]

Originally Posted by catchit111

i already see a trend with people selling out of MA (cashing out) and moving to more affordable areas of the country pocketing in a big chunk of change as a difference. all plan to take time off, enjoy life and travel.

.

100 years ago, those sellers were farmers, and buyers were factory / office workers. Boston metro atea survived. Now sellers ae non tech and buyers are tech, bio, doctors.

There will probably be a crash at sone point but i think this trend will continue else boston will slowly turn into a rust belt. It will probably get to a point where telecommuting tech will solve the affordability issue

[mdovell]

I don't think 40b is a bad program but I think that the issues that come up for more about what lead to a 4tb being needed to begin with. I know of a community that put a 4tb correctly in the woods as nearly in the neighbor in town. Sadly about a quarter to a third of all the arrests in town happened there. You could literally just park a police cruiser there and wait and you know they're going to be called.

Having said that though if you don't have school enrollment and the budget gradually shifts to being more locally-sourced they can become an issue. There are many school districts that frankly aren't growing and believe it or not many school cost remain the same even with lower enrollment. Opting for closing schools or God forbid regionalization creates animosity and to some is a slap in the face.

In lieu of other things I wouldn't say that for TV is technically bad. It might be better to use that rather than to expand actual public housing units. But that's a debate that always occurs. Is it better to give a form of a voucher system or direct service from government?

I may have brought this up before but I can tell you right now that any affluent community that has a form of a municipal golf course can be a prime target for 40 development, especially if it isn't doing well. Golf courses usually have generally flatland in the Landscaping automatically is going to be taken care of. It might be the best resource of open developable land in the region.

Sometimes housing can get very confusing if we don't actually see how developments are defined. Some people confuse homeless shelters with public housing. I know of private elderly residences that are confused with nursing homes. My grandmother saw this one advertised in Hingham and she thinks it's a nursing home but the reality is it's 2200 a month called Linden ponds.

Before some people attempt to bash for TBH I think a few little things need to be established.

One public housing authorities do not always expand public housing.

2 public housing that is available subject now to a centralized list rather than a local list.

3 there are no federal laws that mandate the acceptance of Section 8 vouchers for rental properties. There are no laws in Massachusetts that mandate you must accept Section 8 either. I believe that Chicago in the state of Illinois have a different policy but those are the only ones I know in this country like that. Furthermore although Section 8 is guaranteed what people don't always realize is that it's then up to this local Section 8 administrator to determine if the renter and the property owner are in compliance. I can tell you that there's been an increase in training programs for Section 8 termination hearings. This would only be occurring if they were anticipating more terminations.

So at this in mind if people want to "stay" you have to buy or rent a house, rental market rate apartment, form a Community Land Trust, or move to where it's cheaper. This is also why public transit is a pretty big factor. Access to jobs, housing and medical is a tough act.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by robr2

IMHO, they can't. Most of the people I see working at DD are either fairly young and are probably living with their parents. Older folks are probably barely making it, working multiple jobs, or rely on spouses/significant others to get by.

Many PT lower wage employees are on the dole in some shape or form.

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by DaveC1203

Globe had an article a few weeks ago talking about how the growth isn't going to stop anytime soon according to a few industry experts.

Said Weymouth and other south shore areas would be the next to take off.

I was thinking with Somerville/Medford going bonkers that the north of Boston areas would start to become more gentrified like Stoneham, Wakefield, Melrose, Wilmington.

We asked real estate agents to predict the next hot market

Selfishly speaking, although I never hear it mentioned I hope Woburn is among that group! I think the center has a lot of potential but just has that downmarket feeling for some reason. The dining's already there...and it's not an unreasonable commute to those Waltham office parks (no need to get on 128).

[tysmith95]

Originally Posted by htfdcolt

Selfishly speaking, although I never hear it mentioned I hope Woburn is among that group! I think the center has a lot of potential but just has that downmarket feeling for some reason. The dining's already there...and it's not an unreasonable commute to those Waltham office parks (no need to get on 128).

I don't know though. If every suburb gentrifies where are blue collar and service workers going to live?

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by htfdcolt

Selfishly speaking, although I never hear it mentioned I hope Woburn is among that group! I think the center has a lot of potential but just has that downmarket feeling for some reason. The dining's already there...and it's not an unreasonable commute to those Waltham office parks (no need to get on 128).

Have you seen Woburn prices lately? Ships already set sail ...

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by tysmith95

I don't know though. If every suburb gentrifies where are blue collar and service workers going to live?

Brockton. Lawrence. Lowell. Chelsea. Revere. Saugus. Lynn. Not anywhere you'd find an above average or even an average school system.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by NickL28

Speaking of Dunkin Donuts (and similar type businesses), how does someone (or someone who appears over the age of say 20)survive on such a job working at such a place. Even at $15 an hour the states minimum wage the math doesn't work unless the worker has a spouse who is say a union electrician in Boston for example. I wonder the same thing about people who seem content working retail in the outer Boros of NYC where it costs a minimum of $2000 a month to rent a studio apartment in the Bronx now

Do the math on married and $15 minimum wage. Working 40 hours per week, that's $60K combined income. You're not renting in a condo in a Back Bay brownstone. Single, you have room mates.