MA Real Estate is CRAZY (Belmont, Harvard: 2013, public schools, property tax)

[tysmith95]

Originally Posted by Vanderbiltgrad

Most of the wealthy or people who care about education go to private schools in the South. Public education is not the best here but I doubt it is good at any American High School. I am not trying to be that european elitist but public education is not USA's best point.

Massachusetts has the best public schools in the US.

[btownboss4]

Originally Posted by Vanderbiltgrad

Most of the wealthy or people who care about education go to private schools in the South. Public education is not the best here but I doubt it is good at any American High School. I am not trying to be that european elitist but public education is not USA's best point.

Massachusetts has public education on par with South Korea or Norway.

[yellowstatus]

Originally Posted by walker1962

Boston won't be S.F. or even NYC in the foreseeable future because the population growth just is not there to support that king of house price inflation. Now if Amazon does something stupid on put its HQ2 in Boston, all bets are off.

SF and NYC are leading indicators of unaffordability, and Boston appears to me on a similar trajectory - just 4-9 years behind in the curve. I've been encouraging cowokers to buy real estate in Boston because it represents a compelling value.

I repeatedly see references to cost of living for the middle class, these arguments are the wrong reference point. Look at Shanghai where median income is $20-40k (depending on nominal exchange or PPP conversion) but median real estate is $800k. For these most desirable cities, look towards the top 10% of wealth and income to see the direction of a city. Boston has long been a center of education, but healthcare and tech have seen tremendous growth recently. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. have an increasing presence here.

As a city, we can bury our heads in the sand like SF did. This path leads to another doubling of home prices in Boston. Or, we can build density and transit to maintain some semblance of socioeconomic diversity. As a homeowner, I benefit financially from the former. As a resident, I prefer the latter.

[bugelrex]

Originally Posted by redplum33

That cottage is Palo Alto did not sell for 2.6M. It is listed at 2.6M. Huge difference.

Anyone can list anything at any price. It means nothing.

You are right, i should have used another example.

This one sold last month for 2.75M, 1100sqft and small lot and last renovated in the 70's. Comparable location in MA would be prime brookline or newton comm ave carriage lane. A similar condition/size home on those MA locations would probably sell for 1.3M (contractor will attempt to flip/double size for 2M)

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Palo-Alto/...01/home/543009

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by massnative71

No the bottom districts in MA would be Boston, Lawrence, Holyoke, Springfield, Fall River...Everett and Revere are a good notch above those. Comparing the Nashville metro which I am familiar with, Rutherford and Wilson Counties are better than Everett and Revere. No question. Williamson is comparable to the best in MA, might as well be Wellesley, Newton, or Dover-Sherborn. Metro Nashville-Davidson is certainly no worse than Boston. It's the "upper-middle" (thinking Sumner County) that may not stack up quite as high as the equivalent in MA (Canton, Sharon, Walpole...), but again they are not really comparable to the size and socioeconomic diversity Sumner County has. No state income tax in TN.

Yep. Brentwood in Williamson County is easily at parity with the top-10 in metro Boston. My point was that not all Massachusetts schools are good. Upper middle class schools in Massachusetts are superb. The schools in middle class towns are generally good because they're town schools, not county/regional schools where you get more diversity. Towns use zoning to keep out low income people who would degrade their school systems. You can't call Brockton schools 'good'. Ditto any of the other high poverty rate cities & towns in Massachusetts. Massachusetts schools are highly segregated. Just along socioeconomic lines rather than racial lines.

[bugelrex]

Originally Posted by yellowstatus

Look at Shanghai where median income is $20-40k (depending on nominal exchange or PPP conversion) but median real estate is $800k.

I wouldn't use Shanghai as an example because of the sickening income disparity and corruption and the 'real estate culture' (A man cannot expect to marry unless they OWN a place to live). Better comparison would be London or European cities

[sawyer2]

On a similar topic, check out what $1M gets you in Belmont these days ..... Wow!

331 Common street

- A full gut to the shell rehab is needed as it is not even livable (look at the pics in the link)
https://realtor.com/realestateandhom...0-77145#photo5

- 2300 ft on a 6000 ft lot
- Very busy street
- No room to expand given lot size and city ordinances
- Under agreement in a week
- Listed at 979 and sold for 950 (cash) .... only reason it went for under ask is cash buyer/developer


Wow!

[Arya Stark]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

But the rate at which they are going up is crazy. My neighborhood is actually nuts right now. Three houses sold within the last 9 months all over asking. Based on what they sold for, how they comp, and with my sweat equity and updates I'm fairly confident I could sell my house for $100k over what I paid for it 3 years ago.

I have my home in my "mint" app and every time I log on I am shocked at how much it is going up. A home in my neighborhood is having an open house today. If it sells for what she is asking and I think it might be more.. the value of my house is going to go up. No home in the area has sold for years. Hurting the valuation.

Everyone keeps telling me the market will cool but I doubt it. There just isn't enough inventory and so many new places are rentals.

[Brave Stranger]

Originally Posted by sawyer2

On a similar topic, check out what $1M gets you in Belmont these days ..... Wow!

331 Common street

- A full gut to the shell rehab is needed as it is not even livable (look at the pics in the link)
https://realtor.com/realestateandhom...0-77145#photo5

- 2300 ft on a 6000 ft lot
- Very busy street
- No room to expand given lot size and city ordinances
- Under agreement in a week
- Listed at 979 and sold for 950 (cash) .... only reason it went for under ask is cash buyer/developer


Wow!

I bet that house was owned by a very old couple who obviously did nothing for 60 years. Common Street is busy, but it's a very high-end area, with stately housing-stock up & down the street. Once they fix it up they will make a good profit.

[Vanderbiltgrad]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

Massachusetts has public education on par with South Korea or Norway.

UMMMM no way no chance mate that is true at all. If you mean higher education with Harvard and MIT then yes but not K-12, US public education is a joke man.