What's it like to live in the Boston area. (low income, condos)

[Strannik33]

OP, apart from the winding discussion above, the simple answer to your question is: If you are used to living in a quiet suburban area, you'll find the same here. If you move far away from the city, that is. Except you'd be paying perhaps 1.5-3 times the housing price for the privilege. I will incur the wrath of the Boston patriots for sure, but after living here for decades, I'd stay away. In fact, we are toying with the idea of retiring to Tennessee! There are no state taxes in TN, everything is less expensive, the weather is arguably better -- certainly no worse, the people are friendlier, etc.

[WestieWhitie]

$400-500 isn’t that awful if it includes heat/hot water and all grounds/exterior/common area maintenance and repairs - just think how much that costs you if you have your own house.

Originally Posted by massnative71

$450/mo would be my personal limit, and at $400-$450 it BETTER offer some amenities (pool, fitness center, hot water...). If no extras outside the standard maintenance, water/sewer, snow removal, trash and insurance, it would be hard to justify going over $350/mo.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by WestieWhitie

$400-500 isn’t that awful if it includes heat/hot water and all grounds/exterior/common area maintenance and repairs - just think how much that costs you if you have your own house.

IF it includes heat and hot water, yes that is huge. But if not, I consider it money you will never get back (and usually a result of poor management).

[id77]

Originally Posted by Space_League

Yeah I think that kenmore one it's a good price for the market other than the HOA. It's still more than what people might expect when they expect to come to Boston(thinking of themselves as well off because they live in a comparable size apt in a trendy place in Chicago/Houston/Philly), live right near a T stop in a walkable neighborhood , live in a renovated brownstone, have enough room for their kids etc . They might expect it to be like half the price

Honestly, $450 for a condo in a 2-unit brownstone is pretty reasonable (especially if it's the larger of the two). You consider just the basics for a moment: water, sewer, common area electricity/hot water (if each unit doesnt have their own heater), and master insurance and $450 is pretty bare bones.

I'm in a 2-unit brownstone and the building's monthly water/sewer bill can be $400+ some months. Master insurance is $5k/year. If we also had common hot water, that'd add another $300-400. That can be $1100/month right there, split in half is $550. Even without, the two units paying a combined $700/month HOA treads water with the reserves. Start adding in things like heating storage rooms, elevator, snow removal, and it can get expensive fast.

[Space_League]

Originally Posted by WestieWhitie

$400-500 isn’t that awful if it includes heat/hot water and all grounds/exterior/common area maintenance and repairs - just think how much that costs you if you have your own house.

I'm saying it's a rip based on the property type:



Door on the right goes to 468 Park. Condo is #1 so it looks like whoever buys that gets the ground floor and the 2nd story from the pictures . Probably got a basement neighbor and a third story neighbor. Main floor guy pays 477, lets say the other two pay 477 put together so someone is getting 950 a month in HOA fees.

What common areas? The little tiny hallway inside the front door and the staircase that goes to the other units? Doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe I'm missing something. I don't see any grounds to maintain. Do they pay someone to come in and shovel your parking spot out for 50/hr?

Okay if it includes heat that's big for sure. Is that common? What's the purpose of including heat though? Is it so you can keep it blased to 80 degrees all winter to get your money's worth? Maybe it's so your neighbor doesn't go to Boca for the winter and leave the heat off, freeze the pipes and flood condo in the process.


(edit) id77 I didn't see your post when i made this. That does answer some of the questions. It sounds like the majority might be a master insurance policy in this case?

[id77]

Originally Posted by Space_League

Okay if it includes heat that's big for sure. Is that common? What's the purpose of including heat though? Is it so you can keep it blased to 80 degrees all winter to get your money's worth? Maybe it's so your neighbor doesn't go to Boca for the winter and leave the heat off, freeze the pipes and flood condo in the process.


(edit) id77 I didn't see your post when i made this. That does answer some of the questions. It sounds like the majority might be a master insurance policy in this case?

Common hot water is pretty common in Boston. The logistics to outfit each unit with its own hot water heater is difficult: some units don't have the space to waste on it, others didn't invest the major outlay during renovations to modify the plumbing. The buildings that have recently been bought and gut renovated into units are most likely to have split hot water, if they're nicer/larger units, but a lot of 4-6 unit buildings shove a large hot water heater into a closet in the basement unit and that feeds hot water for everyone.

In 2-unit brownstones, master insurance and utilities like water/sewer that cannot be split by the city into units are the major costs because they're: 1) relatively fixed and 2) split among fewer units. A master insurance policy may be $5k in a 2-unit, and it's not going to be much more in a 3-unit or 5-unit, but those latter buildings can split the cost 3-5 ways. But, yes, at least in our 2-unit HOA master insurance is the #1 expense each year; it'll wipe out 6 months worth of HOA payments by itself. Water/sewer is the #2 expense, and everything else is small potatoes.

The problem with treading water is you want to build reserves for the occasional but large HOA projects to absorb some cost and minimize assessments. Repointing a brownstone can be $30-40k, a new roof $10k+. Splitting that 2 ways can sting, but if you can slowly build up $30k in reserves over 10-15 years, it reduces that assessment remaining to the owners.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by id77

The problem with treading water is you want to build reserves for the occasional but large HOA projects to absorb some cost and minimize assessments. Repointing a brownstone can be $30-40k, a new roof $10k+. Splitting that 2 ways can sting, but if you can slowly build up $30k in reserves over 10-15 years, it reduces that assessment remaining to the owners.

When I was looking I saw loan repayments folded into HOA fees not infrequently. Precisely for larger projects (roofs, foundations, etc) where reserves didn't cover it and they didn't want to do large assessments. Or from when it was apartments and the tenants took out a loan to buy it out and condo-ize it. So, some of the HOA fee may be loan repayments.

[lokaydokay]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Easy. Much less than $500K too. Prices actually seem to be cooling.


25 Alpine St UNIT 36, Hyde Park, MA 02136 | MLS #72914102 | Zillow

Beautiful place, but it's in Mattapan. Not on top of most people's list of desired neighborhoods. Massive discount due to location.

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Easy. Much less than $500K too. Prices actually seem to be cooling.


25 Alpine St UNIT 36, Hyde Park, MA 02136 | MLS #72914102 | Zillow

Originally Posted by lokaydokay

Beautiful place, but it's in Mattapan. Not on top of most people's list of desired neighborhoods. Massive discount due to location.

It's Hyde Park. Very close to Mattapan. Also, on the other side are housing projects. Bad location.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

$500k?!? Were is this?? Baltimore??

If you can find me a 500k 2 bed condo in the one and only city of Boston.. please let me know

I mean, websites like Zillow exist. When I check now, there are 107 2 bedroom+ condos available in the City of Boston.

Is there something I'm missing? Certainly none of these are going to have deficiencies compared to 1 Dalton, but they're in Boston and they've got 2+ bedrooms.

As to the OP, Boston is a fine place to live, but it's expensive. Don't move here unless you have a good reason. Good reasons include things like family and career opportunities.