2023 Real Estate Observations (Boston: date, working, driving)

[msRB311]

There is a home near me that went on the market for 1.5 last week and is already pending...apparently the buyer went over asking. House is on a main rd. I'm still amazed at what people will pay.

[simplexsimon]

Originally Posted by bricka

feels to me like sales are falling of a cliff and market is becoming illiquid.

What do you mean if the market is liquid or illiquid in this case?

[MtPleasantDream]

When people live with parents, they often receive a down payment from parents too, and that's why they can afford a house when they are relatively young.
Americans don't have that "leverage" compared to some immigrants.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by MtPleasantDream

When people live with parents, they often receive a down payment from parents too, and that's why they can afford a house when they are relatively young.
Americans don't have that "leverage" compared to some immigrants.

For the people I know who have parents living with them I sometimes wonder if the parents are paying anything. My colleagues parents live with him and I don't think they pay a thing but they provide free childcare for his kid which I'm sure helps.

[BostonBornMassMade]

A hundred years of choking housing growth catches up with Massachusetts
Since the early 20th century, the Legislature has let individual municipalities thwart housing. Now the consequences threaten the Commonwealth’s future.

Rather than keep the planning and zoning powers at the state level, in 1920 the Legislature delegated them to cities and towns — which promptly started using their new authority to pass rules that suppressed housing growth and kept out poor people and renters.

It didn’t take long for warning signs to start flashing about the impact of local obstructionism spawned by the zoning amendment. Just after World War II, the Globe reported that “zoning restrictions in many Greater Boston communities are hampering large rental projects” for returning veterans. In 1961, the Globe reported on complaints from builders that zoning rules made “more moderately priced housing ‘an impossibility to build.’ ” In 1971, a developer said, “until ways are found to force towns to change zoning codes … ‘we are not going to be able to lick the housing shortage in Massachusetts.’ ” A 1979 feature about housing in Braintree reported, “Because of zoning regulations and environmental restrictions … it is no longer financially feasible to build housing for the middle class in town.”

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

It didn’t take long for warning signs to start flashing about the impact of local obstructionism spawned by the zoning amendment. Just after World War II, the Globe reported that “zoning restrictions in many Greater Boston communities are hampering large rental projects” for returning veterans. In 1961, the Globe reported on complaints from builders that zoning rules made “more moderately priced housing ‘an impossibility to build.’ ” In 1971, a developer said, “until ways are found to force towns to change zoning codes … ‘we are not going to be able to lick the housing shortage in Massachusetts.’ ” A 1979 feature about housing in Braintree reported, “Because of zoning regulations and environmental restrictions … it is no longer financially feasible to build housing for the middle class in town.”

And yet there's been times where housing's been cheap here. It wasn't that long ago that housing in Boston was very affordable, even SFH. In 2008, condo prices in MetroWest collapsed.

[simplexsimon]

Originally Posted by msRB311

For the people I know who have parents living with them I sometimes wonder if the parents are paying anything. My colleagues parents live with him and I don't think they pay a thing but they provide free childcare for his kid which I'm sure helps.

Completely depends on if the parents have means, the cultural norm is the same.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

A hundred years of choking housing growth catches up with Massachusetts
Since the early 20th century, the Legislature has let individual municipalities thwart housing. Now the consequences threaten the Commonwealth’s future.

Rather than keep the planning and zoning powers at the state level, in 1920 the Legislature delegated them to cities and towns — which promptly started using their new authority to pass rules that suppressed housing growth and kept out poor people and renters.

It didn’t take long for warning signs to start flashing about the impact of local obstructionism spawned by the zoning amendment. Just after World War II, the Globe reported that “zoning restrictions in many Greater Boston communities are hampering large rental projects” for returning veterans. In 1961, the Globe reported on complaints from builders that zoning rules made “more moderately priced housing ‘an impossibility to build.’ ” In 1971, a developer said, “until ways are found to force towns to change zoning codes … ‘we are not going to be able to lick the housing shortage in Massachusetts.’ ” A 1979 feature about housing in Braintree reported, “Because of zoning regulations and environmental restrictions … it is no longer financially feasible to build housing for the middle class in town.”

Move to another state

[bricka]

Originally Posted by simplexsimon

What do you mean if the market is liquid or illiquid in this case?

no volume

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

And yet there's been times where housing's been cheap here. It wasn't that long ago that housing in Boston was very affordable, even SFH. In 2008, condo prices in MetroWest collapsed.

Going back to 1990 housing In the Boston metro has always been 50% more expensive than the US as a whole.

Going back to 1940 it was 30% more expensive. Its never been cheap. Not even in 2008.