The thought of buying a home in Boston is sure to induce a cold sweat. Not only does the process of purchasing a house require heightened organizational skills, a clear mind and a sense of skepticism for prices and the parties involved, but it’s an expensive endeavor. Especially in this region.
Somerville has been deemed a market to watch in 2015.
In Cambridge, a 609-square-foot cottage sold for $530,000 – some $90,000 above the original asking price.
And as for Boston, commercial and residential properties are collectively valued at over $100 billion.
Some pockets of the country do fetch the same kind of property prices as the Boston area. In comparison to the overall national average, though, the Hub’s homeownership rate trails. But barely.
In fact, the Boston rate is poised to surpass that of America as a whole.
According to Q4 housing vacancies and homeownership data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, Greater Boston ‘s (constituted by the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH Metropolitan Statistical Area) homeownership rate has hovered between 62 and 67 percent since 2005.
Comparatively, the nation’s range during that same time span is between 69 and 64 percent. The striking difference between the two, however, is that the nation’s rate has steadily declined during each of those years while Greater Boston’s ebbs and flows annually.
For the most part the homeownership rate in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has mirrored Greater Boston’s, rising and falling during the same years with only a percentage point or so differentiating the two datasets.
On a regional level, for which the Census Bureau provided Q4 rates from just 2013 and 2014, the Northeast (62.8 percent) trailed both the Midwest and the South (69.8 percent and 67.1 percent, respectively) in 2013. The West recorded 59.3 percent.
In 2014, all regions saw dips – 61.9 percent for the Northeast, 68.3 percent for the Midwest, 65.5 percent for the South and 58.6 percent for the West.
As is the case in Massachusetts and elsewhere, the real estate market in Greater Boston is determined by a variety of factors. Somerville and Cambridge, for example, are not only in easily-accessible proximity to the City of Boston but they’re also the beneficiaries of an extended branch of the MBTA’s Green Line.
Conversely, while Boston certainly boasts a respectable arsenal of higher-ed institutions of its own, its municipal neighbors also afforded residents a top-notch education.
A booming innovation economy, fruitful healthcare sector, and the transformation of urban centers into tech hubs – as seen in South Boston’s Innovation District and conceptualized for Dudley Square – all help, along with other benefits, to make Greater Boston a more appealing place to relocate to and settle down.
Featured image via Nick DeLuca
