Natural beauty and culture are nice, but affordability, quality count
The question of affordability and quality loom large in the Boston market.
It costs a lot to live around here, whether you are a homeowner or a renter.
The subject, always lurking in any debate over local real estate issues, popped up again in comments to my post on Tuesday on the latest study detailing the struggles low-income folks have around here finding affordable rentals.
A mini debate took off among readers as to whether the Boston area’s natural beauty and cultural attractions are enough to outweigh the many shortcomings of our very high cost housing market.
I thought BostonCharles’ comments cut right to the core of the dilemma facing many of us living in the Boston area who may be gainfully employed and even well paid, but are not pulling down a huge hedge fund or tech sector paycheck.
Beyond the pretty dire issues facing low-income renters, the housing market is no picnic around here either for middle income and even many upper income buyers.
This is an area with a largely overpriced, older housing stock, with few if any new homes getting built even during good times. That leaves buyers paying up for homes that will also need a lot of work.
In many parts of the country, $300,000 will get you a dream home, but in the Boston area, that’s might get you fixer-upper with potential, but in the need for a lot of work.
“Boston is too expensive. And poor value to boot. This will eventually correct itself.
In fact, it is correcting itself now if you look at the population flows to the south etc. I'm starting seriously to think of joining that flow. The advantages Boston used to have over the rest of the country have faded, thanks in part to the net, but the weather remains the same, and the taxes and cost of living have gone up.
The only way for the Boston area to remain more expensive than average over the long term is to provide more value than average. It used to. Whether it will have the same comparative advantages in the future remains to be seen.”
Of course, this runs counter to all the happy talk out there that you should really be focused on buying into a community.
Check out this new study, "Soul of the Community" by Gallup and Knight.
People are attracted to a community because they have “fun places to gather, there's a welcoming atmosphere and there are beautiful and green spaces to enjoy,” to quote from a MarketWatch article on the report.
Sure, the Boston area has lots of those attractions, from great sports teams to parks to museums.
But I have three children five and under – my days of leisurely partaking of the area’s cultural offerings are long gone.
So the basics count more than ever – having a decent house with a relatively affordable mortgage.
My wife and I are happy here – we solved our housing challenge by building onto our fixer-upper as our family grew from just the two of us to five. We managed to avoid breaking the bank as well.
But I suspect getting there would have been a lot easier – and cheaper and less time consuming – than in many other parts of the country.
