Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston, Sandwich: natural gas, rental market, condo)

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by western mass and love it

Stop , if all these “ precautions “ are basically keeping the Flu at bay. They would be seriously minimizing the spread of Covid.

Two different animals.

The precautions have absolutely helped to slow the spread of covid.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by msRB311

4,060 New COVID Cases, 48 More Deaths

What’s everyone doing for NYE?

Asleep by 10pm. I stopped celebrating a calendar change years ago.

[yesmaybe]

Charlie's been quiet... 6 days since last press conference. Have to think that if the shutdown is gonna happen, he'd have to announce it soon.

[jtolpin]

Ooh, interesting.

Perhaps hes been quiet for the holidays. How have the numbers been recently, about the same? Going down?

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by jtolpin

Ooh, interesting.

Perhaps hes been quiet for the holidays. How have the numbers been recently, about the same? Going down?

Hospitalizations still climbing

[id77]

Originally Posted by bohemka

I disagree. I've worked from home for the past two decades, and I'd rather live in a city center than the suburbs. Real estate cost in Boston/Camberville is prohibitive to most, and I suspect real estate agents would agree that prices there have not dropped one bit.

Indeed. I get that some of the people here who don't live in Boston cannot fathom that someone would pay inner Boston prices when they don't have to, but lots of people of means do...and a big part of why the prices are what they are.

If the people who chose to live in Boston only did so for the easy commute, the prices would already have collapsed. The fact they haven't suggests that many who live in Boston want to live there for non-work reasons. The exodus might be a little more real in a neighborhood like West Roxbury, but the inner neighborhoods are the prices they are because people who don't even work in Boston (or need to work at all) are contributing to the exhaustion of the already limited supply of housing.

Like bohemka, I work from home and I still choose to live in Boston. The other family in my brownstone also works from home. Many of the neighbors I know aren't here because of the commute either.

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by id77

If the people who chose to live in Boston only did so for the easy commute, the prices would already have collapsed.

Buying isn't a short term commitment. You're not going to sell your place and move somewhere there isn't much in the way of in person jobs if you think things are going to go back to normal in a year.

I also think the eviction ban is still going on. If you are a LL, can't sell if you can't get rid of your deadbeat tenant. That would open up a lot of supply.

[id77]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

Buying isn't a short term commitment. You're not going to sell your place and move somewhere there isn't much in the way of in person jobs if you think things are going to go back to normal in a year.

I also think the eviction ban is still going on. If you are a LL, can't sell if you can't get rid of your deadbeat tenant. That would open up a lot of supply.

It also makes me think we're talking about two different real estate markets in Boston that have only a small effect on one another. There's the tiny studio/1 bedroom rental market, and then there's the 2-4 bedroom condo market dominated by owner-occupants. What I'm saying is those 2-4 bedroom condos aren't suddenly going to plummet because their owners didn't buy them as a place to crash near work.

To put it another way, if you own 1500+ square feet with private outdoor space and/or off-street parking, what reason do you have to sell your place? You have the comforts of a suburban home with the location and amenities of the city.

[msRB311]

There are people who love the city and people who love the suburbs. Always has been always will be.

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by id77

To put it another way, if you own 1500+ square feet with private outdoor space and/or off-street parking, what reason do you have to sell your place? You have the comforts of a suburban home with the location and amenities of the city.

Area de-gentrifies due to what's left of the middle class leaving (and perhaps some very poor people moving in and increasing crime) and/or taxes skyrocketing to pay all the Rona-related bailouts. That is, if you aren't unemployed yourself because real remote workers in HCOL areas are at a huge disadvantage because they are so noncompetitive on salary demands. Imagine if you had to take a 20% hit on your salary to stay employed - would you still be able to afford your mortgage?

What I am talking about happened here in the burbs from in 2008 or so. It was somewhat mitigated because of burb employers importing foreign workers before 2008 but there were a ton of people who left and went to New Hampshire and states like Texas and North Carolina. But once those employers started to move into the city after 2008, SFH prices slumped and condo prices collapsed.