2023 Real Estate Observations (Boston, Cambridge, Hingham: mechanic, no kids, student)

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by Moh1988

I'm glad I was able to convince you that you were wrong
My point regarding $2.2M was specific to the $500k salary. Regarding your last sentence, believe me I know very well,,, I'm a happy renter in the Lex/Belm area who could only afford $600k 4bd/2ba in Nashua NH
God bless those who could afford >$2.2M homes

You didn't convince me...I never disagreed that someone making $500K couldn't afford a $2M home. It's just that does it really make good sense to do so?


If you buy that $600K house in Nashua NH today...it might be an $800K house in a couple years...never bad to switch from renter to owner if you don't have to commute into town often or can make the commute work! You might make enough profit to then go buy a $2.2M house...ok?!

[Moh1988]

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

You didn't convince me...I never disagreed that someone making $500K couldn't afford a $2M home. It's just that does it really make good sense to do so?


If you buy that $600K house in Nashua NH today...it might be an $800K house in a couple years...never bad to switch from renter to owner if you don't have to commute into town often or can make the commute work!

Yes, it does! If someone is making $500k per year, they should absolutely go and buy that $2.2M home because it's not a big # in this town! You don't get a castle for $2.2M in Boston,,, you literally get an OK house.

Thank you Mr. Obvious! I'm not commuting 3 hours a day from NH to Cambridge so I'm making extra $200K on a property down the line.

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by Moh1988

Yes, it does! If someone is making $500k per year, they should absolutely go and buy that $2.2M home because it's not a big # in this town! You don't get a castle for $2.2M in Boston,,, you literally get an OK house.

Thank you Mr. Obvious! I'm not commuting 3 hours a day from NH to Cambridge so I'm making extra $200K on a property down the line.

Thank you for supporting my point. $2.2M and you literally just get an OK house.....that's outrageous.

[Moh1988]

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

Thank you for supporting my point. $2.2M and you literally just get an OK house.....that's outrageous.

This town has always been expensive compared to other towns in this country. You have NYC, Cali, and Boston (Chicago and Miami a notch below these towns). Ppl get paid a lot (you mentioned $500k per year),,, it's only normal that the pricing of homes goes up.

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by Moh1988

This town has always been expensive compared to other towns in this country. You have NYC, Cali, and Boston (Chicago and Miami a notch below these towns). Ppl get paid a lot (you mentioned $500k per year),,, it's only normal that the pricing of homes goes up.

Wages are generally not keeping up w/the pace of housing increases in this state though. While there are high salaries here, the $500K ones aren't a dime a dozen like some folks seem to think they are.

[ca1337]

Remember I said TC not salary. At these levels it is very very rare that bonus and stocks don't contribute significantly to TC. 500K base is CEO level in a biotech.

You might see some very high ranked people in FAANG making this kind of bank but that's a tiny proportion of them and they tend to be in CA. There are a few in Cambridge though! These guys go for the 5M houses because their TC is in the millions...

This is what we're bidding up against basically.

I agree wages don't keep up and things are very unbalanced here.

[matrix5k]

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

That profile certainly works but how many folks out there actually fit that profile and have two earners w ~250K+ /yr comp? Do any of them actually think about what happens if one loses their job? Would it be that easy to get another $250K/yr job? Would you really want to be locked in that much to corporate America knowing you each have to maintain those high salary jobs for the term of your mortgage or time living in that expensive $2M+ home to support that lifestyle? I guess that's the part that always gets me. Yay, we bring in $500K/year, so let's go buy that $2.2M colonial we always wanted in Hingham, along with the Porsche Cayenne and oh yes, the two annual European vacations too. Then after 3 years....cue the husband or wife dreading the daily commute into Cambridge/Boston and the 50+ hr work weeks.

Why do you care so much about how other people choose to spend their money? It's incessant.

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by matrix5k

Why do you care so much about how other people choose to spend their money? It's incessant.

The discussion was based off another poster's comment who said to the effect how they can't fathom what some people are still spending on housing and how they're doing it. I agreed and said it is quite amazing. It's topic for discussion. At the end of the day I don't really care. It's not my finances but sure is interesting to see what others are spending and if they will be able to sustain it.

[matrix5k]

It's not that hard to fathom. Not everyone has a W2 job. Many peopleb made a lot from investments.

[msRB311]

Ok and thats why we have prices then. This thread is basically the only discussion on this forum. All about MA real estate. Eventually its going to be brought up how people continue to afford these prices. Many people are intrigued by how others spend money. If you don't care that's fine, Carry on.