Economic pain train's a coming (Boston, Worcester: for sale, student loans, hotel)

[AtkinsonDan]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Which is actually quite smart of you. Again, I think this comes from a general ignorance of what vaccines actually are and how they work. People don't see how the sausage is made in these cases. Being so gung ho about the idea that some messianic vaccine will swoop in and save humanity is laughably naive.

The oldest vaccine for smallpox has only been around since the late 1700's which is less than 250 years. The human race has been around for over ten thousand years. Human beings obviously survived for thousands of years prior to vaccines. That is why I have some degree of faith in natural immunity but I will obtain a vaccine once it has several years of use without serious side effects.

[brightdoglover]

Originally Posted by AtkinsonDan

The oldest vaccine for smallpox has only been around since the late 1700's which is less than 250 years. The human race has been around for over ten thousand years. Human beings obviously survived for thousands of years prior to vaccines. That is why I have some degree of faith in natural immunity but I will obtain a vaccine once it has several years of use without serious side effects.

As a group, yes, survival and absurd increasing over the centuries. As individuals, not so good. I imagine most people are frightened of their own illness/death and that of their own, not the mass of humanity existing.

[trevor0101]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

As a group, yes, survival and absurd increasing over the centuries. As individuals, not so good. I imagine most people are frightened of their own illness/death and that of their own, not the mass of humanity existing.

morganfreeman_hesrightyouknow.gif

[masssachoicetts]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

You mean the ones who are magically protected by red hats and confederate flags?

ditto.

[TechieTechie]

All, can we get back to focusing on the economic impact in MA? This was a very good thread (and informative) for awhile, until it went off the rails.

I am really interested in understanding the impact on residential real estate, particularly in the Metro Boston area.

MikePRU, what are you seeing and hearing from your RE and banking colleagues?

[brightdoglover]

I wrote to my former R.E. agent in Middlesex County, Littleton, Mass. The county is a major epicenter in a larger epicenter of COVID, and my agent lives quite near the outbreak in a nursing home where many people died. She said that things are still quite high, although she is running viewings one at a time, etc. As I follow prices in that town (cannot let go, after buying a cottage there in 1992, rebuilding to a lovely small house in 2001, and selling that house in 2018) and I see that the big, "colonial" new houses are very cookie cutter to my eye and not interesting, but holding a very high price still. Any more modest houses more in town and near Long Lake and 495, they seem to have begun to go for $400k and less, after asking prices higher. I think the asking were a stab at the high end and had to back off. They are often fixed up, new kitchen, etc. New houses that occupy town lots that were modest houses are often fairly high priced, also.

If anyone would like a R.E. agent referral for that area, please feel free to DM me. I had the same agent for my cottage in 1992 and again in 2018 for my sale.

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by AtkinsonDan

The oldest vaccine for smallpox has only been around since the late 1700's which is less than 250 years. The human race has been around for over ten thousand years. Human beings obviously survived for thousands of years prior to vaccines. That is why I have some degree of faith in natural immunity but I will obtain a vaccine once it has several years of use without serious side effects.

As long as you continue to wear a mask for several years whenever you're in public, then that's Kosher with me.

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

I wrote to my former R.E. agent in Middlesex County, Littleton, Mass. The county is a major epicenter in a larger epicenter of COVID, and my agent lives quite near the outbreak in a nursing home where many people died. She said that things are still quite high, although she is running viewings one at a time, etc. As I follow prices in that town (cannot let go, after buying a cottage there in 1992, rebuilding to a lovely small house in 2001, and selling that house in 2018) and I see that the big, "colonial" new houses are very cookie cutter to my eye and not interesting, but holding a very high price still. Any more modest houses more in town and near Long Lake and 495, they seem to have begun to go for $400k and less, after asking prices higher. I think the asking were a stab at the high end and had to back off. They are often fixed up, new kitchen, etc. New houses that occupy town lots that were modest houses are often fairly high priced, also.

If anyone would like a R.E. agent referral for that area, please feel free to DM me. I had the same agent for my cottage in 1992 and again in 2018 for my sale.

My big concern in Mass is that rent is going to skyrocket faster than it has been (and given my rent has gone up 18% in 2 years way out in Marlborough, it's already ridiculous) but housing will hold its value. Wealthy people will be able to buy up properties to flip or rent, and those who have long been screwed will be even more screwed.


I graduated in the midst of the recession and it took years for my income to come in line with my expectations (and throw in losing what little life savings and opportunity to save in my 20s I had to a cancer diagnosis even when insured). Now that I'm finally financially comfortable and planning for home ownership and kids in the next 2 years, this happens. My job in higher ed is no longer secure at all and no matter what, I will probably now have to push my timeline for kids into my late 30s.



It's beyond depressing. And I know I'm in better shape than most of my peers.


In the meantime, I'm enrolling in online course design courses for as long as I continue to get tuition remission. I was planning to go for an MBA starting this fall, but it seems that online learning is probably a safer bet at this point.

[brightdoglover]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

...
In the meantime, I'm enrolling in online course design courses for as long as I continue to get tuition remission. I was planning to go for an MBA starting this fall, but it seems that online learning is probably a safer bet at this point.

(I understand the real estate wars around Cambridge/Boston/the area. Completely skewed my choices and needs my whole working life).

There are surely MBA courses on line, and have been for some time. I'm thinking of the Sloan School at MIT- I know someone who was taking the courses online years ago.

[mdovell]

NBA has a degree has been gradually water down. I highly suggest looking at online MBA programs. University of Illinois think runs one through Coursera which might be about 30 grand. UMass Amherst stupidly spent 50 million dollars on a new business Wing I have no idea why they spend such a high amount. if you really think that high-end MBA programs have much of a value read the book ahead of the curve which looks at Harvards MBA program. I'm not doubting that there is some value of a business education. but anybody advocating to spend six figures or more to obtain something that might not have validity let alone reliability is a bit foolish.

Personally I think rents going to go down. until the states around the country authorize short-term rentals the owners have no choice but to go to longer-term rentals. think of all the college communities that have campus housing the students that are now sitting empty. I've already seen some properties posted because the students left about two months ago and they need 5 months of occupancy to help pay for the place.

think of all the high-end communities in the 128 belt that are high-end due to is school systems. now that it's all going online it makes it much harder to justify spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars more with one town VS another. Since no school district or public entity can copyright or trademark the curriculum for itself what would prevent one school district from offering curriculum online to out-of-district students?

remember what Amazon did to retail over the past 15 to 20 years? How are the malls doing now? Now picture that with education. of course you're always going to have your ivy league which pretty much has a fair amount of endowment funds I can use to help. I think we're always going to have some form of in-person instruction in education whether it be public or private in Academia or hate through 12. But the teacher or Professor ratio to students might change.