If real estate appreciation was your primary goal, where would you buy a house? (Cambridge: transplants, to rent)

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by robr2

Well I haven't dumped on Weymouth. I don't know enough about it to have an opinion other than the horror show that Rt. 18 is between 6 AM and 8 PM.

The OP said schools are not an issue, so it doesn't matter. He/She is looking for appreciation and for the cities you listed, Chelsea is the winner both in percentage and dollar increase with Weymouth coming in 4/5 place:

Median Home Value (based off Zillow)
Current Projected '17 Increase
Weymouth 322k 326k $4K/1.24%
Malden 353k 359k $6K/1.7%
Chelsea 273k 280k $7K/2.6%
Quincy 375k 381k $6K/1.6%
Everett 310k 313k $3K/1%

Chelsea is already starting to gentrify - luxury apartments, lofts, hotels, businesses, new silver line, a doggie daycare - can the Whole Foods and beard shops be far behind? Yes it's gritty and desolate but that was Somerville 20 years ago. Further, the west side of Rt. 16 is actually very Quincy like with older, well kept single and two family homes. A friend of my in-laws sold his single family home in Chelsea for $535K in December and Zillow has it at $588K today - that's 10% in 4 months.

If I were young, single and wanted to be able to reach the city easily regularly, Chelsea would be on my radar.

Not to mention the silver line extension with several stops in Chelsea to connect it to the Seaport / Innovation District. It's the only project in the MBTA pipeline that's still on time and within budget. It's going to be invaded by young techies in a couple years.

It does have its fair share of violent gang activity, but you just have to know which neighborhoods to avoid. Remember JP was similar once upon a time.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by Parsec

Not to mention the silver line extension with several stops in Chelsea to connect it to the Seaport / Innovation District. It's the only project in the MBTA pipeline that's still on time and within budget. It does have its fair share of violent gang activity, but you just have to know which neighborhoods to avoid. Remember JP was similar once upon a time.

I keep seeing Chelsea on the list for being highest in the state for violent crime. J.P. used to be rougher than it is today, but it was never the worst neighborhood in the state. Chelsea's problem is its small size of 1 or 2 square miles. You are never far from trouble there. That could hinder its improvement.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by MrLinderman

I know this board loves to dump on Weymouth, and I feel like its loan defender at times, but it is leaps and bounds better than Chelsea and Everett.

You occasionally find a wealthy white suburbanite who will without hesitation turn their nose at the white blue-collar folk in places like Weymouth, but are too chickens#$t to say similar in regards to places populated by "minorities".

[Whatsnext75]

Hyde park also gets a bad rep mainly because it is half black

Weymouth is all white for the most part

[MrLinderman]

Originally Posted by massnative71

I keep seeing Chelsea on the list for being highest in the state for violent crime. J.P. used to be rougher than it is today, but it was never the worst neighborhood in the state. Chelsea's problem is its small size of 1 or 2 square miles. You are never far from trouble there. That could hinder its improvement.

From the FBI crime stats in 2014 (most recent)

City Population
Chelsea 38,396
Everett 42,966
Weymouth 55,996

Violent crimes Murder/manslaughter Rape Robbery Agg. assault Property Burglary Larceny MV theft
427 4 21 171 231 1,054 195 737 122
202 1 19 61 121 898 186 621 91
134 0 12 16 106 677 117 528 32


I hope I didn't butcher the formatting too much, but Chelsea (and to a lesser, but still very large extent Everett) is significantly more dangerous than Weymouth. Significant smaller population with an significantly larger raw total.

Chelsea has 10 years before it compares to current day Weymouth safety wise. But don't worry everyone, the heroin crisis is apparently only in Weymouth, so the numbers don't matter.

[Whatsnext75]

There are gangs in chelsea. Pretty sure there's no gang activity in weymouth. Drugs are everywhere.

[mwbms28]

I think the OP should consider how much risk s/he is willing to assume, also.

Quincy homes appreciated 5.3% in 2015. By comparison, Framingham homes appreciated 7.7%, and in my opinion offer lower risk because of the better school system, some really nice parts of town, proximity to other nice towns, etc. Plus, homes in Framingham are worth more already and so offer a better return in total dollar terms, as well. Frankly I'm not sure why someone would ever buy a house in Quincy over Framingham from an investment standpoint - Quincy appears to offer lower return and higher risk during a downturn. The convenience is obviously another story particular to the OP's situation.

My earlier suggestion of Lawrence is intended as high risk with potential for high return - Lawrence homes appreciated 9.3% last year. But, if the goal is maximum return, I think this is the way to do it. Dorchester also has potential in this regard - that was a good suggestion earlier. You could even buy two houses in Lawrence and rent one out with $400,000. But, in a downturn you better have deep pockets. Maybe that's not what you're going for.

Look at Framingham.

[Whatsnext75]

And im going to mention hyde park again because i think it's the next roslindale and home prices there jumped 8% this year.

https://realestate.boston.com/buying...s-most-of-all/

I cant believe home prices went up 89% in Charlestown...

[semiurbanite]

Originally Posted by massnative71

but Quincy has a much better QOL for those with families.

Based on what? Many of us are raising kids in Somerville and it's pretty awesome actually.

[Whatsnext75]

Quincy is also much more conservative than somerville so that should be taken into consideration also.

But yeah i also dont know how the qol in quincy is better than somerville.