So what happened to Holyoke? (Boston, Worcester: 2014, home, job market)

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Just for the record...Holyoke won’t gentrify: due to lack of population growth in western ma, a RAPIDLY DECLINING youth population in the Northeast, poor schools, increasingly weak incomes and savings of young people, and the racial dynamics....but marijuana will help it.

Folks haven’t come to understand the oldest millennials are 38 years old now. The rush of ‘young people’ into the city has begun to slow ever so slightly and will be much less in the 2020s and 2030s. The MAJOR cities can still attract rich twenty somethings and 30 somethings but the incoming generation z is MUCH smaller, more diverse, and lower income than millennials.

Holyoje is a tier 4/5 city that would only gentrify with tremendous population growth and demand in the local area. Not everywhere can be a success story. No one is moving to Holyoke because it is next to Easthampton MA..I’m really done with this too.

Uh.. No

Any place can gentrify. If you told me four years ago rents in Springfield would be going uo 5-8% and a tenant in my place drives a Maserati I would have thought you were nuts.

Baby boomers are retiring and frankly they can't take it with them. If you don't give younger people the jobs and capital to buy thing then those industries will fall. It already is happening.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...207-story.html

Suburbs are not where jobs are and frankly younger people don't want to drive otherwise they'd be buying cars let alone driving them.

Youths are leaving suburbs because frankly there isn't anything for them. I numbed Moore the other day at the Victoria Ball. Look it up. Think the suburbs can pull something like that off? Probably not. The constant obsession of housing at all costs erodes reasons to stay.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Uh.. No

Any place can gentrify. If you told me four years ago rents in Springfield would be going uo 5-8% and a tenant in my place drives a Maserati I would have thought you were nuts.

Baby boomers are retiring and frankly they can't take it with them. If you don't give younger people the jobs and capital to buy thing then those industries will fall. It already is happening.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...207-story.html

Suburbs are not where jobs are and frankly younger people don't want to drive otherwise they'd be buying cars let alone driving them.

Youths are leaving suburbs because frankly there isn't anything for them. I numbed Moore the other day at the Victoria Ball. Look it up. Think the suburbs can pull something like that off? Probably not. The constant obsession of housing at all costs erodes reasons to stay.

Huge difference between revitalize and gentrify. HUGE. Any place can rwvitalize, but not any place canbgentrify. They aren’t at all the same. Of course Springfield CAN gentrify. It’s the third largest city in NE.

[massnative71]

Totally off on just about everything.

Originally Posted by mdovell

Any place can gentrify. Only if the conditions are right. Those conditions may never exist in a place like Holyoke. If you told me four years ago rents in Springfield would be going uo 5-8% and a tenant in my place drives a Maserati I would have thought you were nuts. OK?

Baby boomers are retiring and frankly they can't take it with them. Nope, and the younger generation often isn't qualified to take over (not the home grown anyway). They either fold, or import their workers from elsewhere. If you don't give younger people the jobs and capital to buy thing then those industries will fall. It already is happening.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...207-story.html

Suburbs are not where jobs are many of them are, certainly more so than Holyoke and frankly younger people don't want to drive but they do otherwise they'd be buying cars that's certainly news to the dealerships, and the entire auto industry who now caters/markets towards the younger crowd more than any other generation let alone driving them again, what roads have you been driving on?.

Youths are leaving suburbs a some do like they always have (usually to a legit city as opposed to HOLYOKE though), once they start popping out kids they will be back (again like they always have) because frankly there isn't anything for them except for good housing, schools, shopping, and all other modern amenities that most families require. I numbed Moore the other day at the Victoria Ball. Look it up. Think the suburbs can pull something like that off? Probably not. The constant obsession of housing at all costs erodes reasons to stay. Not following you at all

[FCMA]

The whole reason that the Valley remains MA’s secret awesome corner boils down to a razor point of nouveau comparative financial mediocrity.

Some of us HATE THE SUBURBS and probably can’t afford to live in them anyways. Contemporary metro Boston COL has made it so you either need to be a HAVE (IN ALL CAPS) or gtfo the 128 belt. People with a soul don’t really want to live in Burlington or Sharon or Leominster anyways, and about the only places left in the state for us economic semi-rejects to live an interesting life for cheap, work remotely maybe, might be Worcester (sorta) and Springfield (sorta even less) or maybe flee towards New Bedford or out west to the Holyoke and Greenfield rust belt. Not much left in between brackets except North/Easthampton and Lawrence. Just don’t have babies because they’ll go to school with actual poor kids who suffer and bring down the MCAS scores, not what c-d posters with $900k+ Newton budgets for little Brody and Phoebe will tolerate.

[tovarisch]

Isn't it Brady, not Brody?

[mp775]

Not just post of the year, post of forever. I might print that out and frame it.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by FCMA

The whole reason that the Valley remains MA’s secret awesome corner boils down to a razor point of nouveau comparative financial mediocrity.

Some of us HATE THE SUBURBS and probably can’t afford to live in them anyways. Contemporary metro Boston COL has made it so you either need to be a HAVE (IN ALL CAPS) or gtfo the 128 belt. People with a soul don’t really want to live in Burlington or Sharon or Leominster anyways, and about the only places left in the state for us economic semi-rejects to live an interesting life for cheap, work remotely maybe, might be Worcester (sorta) and Springfield (sorta even less) or maybe flee towards New Bedford or out west to the Holyoke and Greenfield rust belt. Not much left in between brackets except North/Easthampton and Lawrence. Just don’t have babies because they’ll go to school with actual poor kids who suffer and bring down the MCAS scores, not what c-d posters with $900k+ Newton budgets for little Brody and Phoebe will tolerate.

The South Coast is similar. You can buy a starter home in a town with an OK school system for sub-$200 per square foot. As soon as you get beyond non-soul crushing commuting distance from the Boston jobs, Massachusetts is affordable as long as you're not competing with vacation home buyers or the pockets where white collar professionals cluster. South Station is only 60 miles so it's not like it's wicked fah when it's not rush hour.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

The South Coast is similar. You can buy a starter home in a town with an OK school system for sub-$200 per square foot. As soon as you get beyond non-soul crushing commuting distance from the Boston jobs, Massachusetts is affordable as long as you're not competing with vacation home buyers or the pockets where white collar professionals cluster. South Station is only 60 miles so it's not like it's wicked fah when it's not rush hour.

I really hope southeastern MA and RI remain affordable (relative to metrowest MA) because I desperately wish to retire there (assuming that is ever feasible or I don't stroke out before then). I'd argue it provides the highest quality of life in MA if you able to maintain a manageable commute.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

I really hope southeastern MA and RI remain affordable (relative to metrowest MA) because I desperately wish to retire there (assuming that is ever feasible or I don't stroke out before then). I'd argue it provides the highest quality of life in MA if you able to maintain a manageable commute.

Agreed, they’ll probably remain affordable if they have through this time. The gold rush is coming to an end if it has an already. We’ve seen some market stabilization and I think will see more of the same as we go forward.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

I really hope southeastern MA and RI remain affordable (relative to metrowest MA) because I desperately wish to retire there (assuming that is ever feasible or I don't stroke out before then). I'd argue it provides the highest quality of life in MA if you able to maintain a manageable commute.

I don't see how the South Coast economy will ever support higher housing prices other than waterfront and the gated summer communities which are already expensive. Look at median household income for the towns. The South Coast has no 6 figure median household income towns.