In today's market, there are advantages to both renting out your properties in a rising rental rate environment, and converting them into condos where inventory is very low and homes are selling for top dollar.  Clients have asked me about the advantages and disadvantages to both.  There are many factors to consider.

Some advantages are potential tax savings and the flexibility of selling each unit individually.  Some disadvantages are the time that such a conversion takes, and the challenges of dealing with existing tenants in the process.  Usually, approval is required from the municipality where the conversion is taking place, and then all individual units have to be registered on their own.  You can read more about the process here.

If you…

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We’re still in a sellers’ market. And if you’re looking to buy a home, that means you’re likely facing some unique challenges, like difficulty finding a home and volatile mortgage rates. But keep in mind, there are some benefits to being a buyer in today’s market that give you good reason to stick with your search. Here are a few of them.

Long-Term Benefits Outweigh Short-Term Challenges

Owning a home grows your net worth – and since building that wealth takes time, it makes sense to start as soon as you can. If you wait to buy and keep renting, you’ll miss out on those monthly housing payments going toward your home equity. Freddie Mac puts it this way:

“Homeownership not only builds a sense of pride and accomplishment, but it’s also an…

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The next Boston neighborhood on the rise: Bulfinch Crossing

As realtors, we often get asked which neighborhood we think is the next up-and-coming area in the city.   Everyone wishes they'd had the foresight to invest in the Seaport when it was largely the arts community, parking lots and warehouses, and is looking for that under-the-radar opportunity.  East Boston and its redevelopment gets a lot of attention.  But there is one neighborhood almost no one is talking about and I believe will see the most growth over the next several years: Bulfinch Crossing.

This neighborhood is located in between the North End, West End, Financial District and Beacon Hill - the location couldn't be more convenient.  Bulfinch Crossing is within a 10-minute walk…

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There have been a lot of shifts in the housing market recently. Mortgage rates rose dramatically last year, impacting many people’s ability to buy a home. And after several years of rapid price appreciation, home prices finally peaked last summer. These changes led to a rise in headlines saying prices would end up crashing.

Even though we’re no longer seeing the buyer frenzy that drove home values up during the pandemic, prices have been relatively flat at the national level. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), doesn’t expect that to change:

“[H]ome prices will be steady in most parts of the country with a minor change in the national median home price.”

You might think sellers would have to lower…

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The 30-year fixed mortgage rate has been bouncing between 6% and 7% this year. If you’ve been on the fence about whether to buy a home or not, it’s helpful to know exactly how a 1%, or even a 0.5%, mortgage rate shift affects your purchasing power.

The chart below helps show the general relationship between mortgage rates and a typical monthly mortgage payment:

Even a 0.5% change can have a big impact on your monthly payment. And since rates have been moving between 6% and 7% for a while now, you can see how it impacts your purchasing power as rates go down.

What This Means for You

You may be tempted to put your homebuying plans on hold in hopes that rates will fall. But that can be risky. No one knows for sure where rates will go from…

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Even though activity in the housing market has slowed from the frenzy we saw over a year ago, today’s low supply of homes for sale is still a sellers’ market. But what does that really mean? And why are conditions today so good if you want to list your house?

It starts with the number of homes available for sale. The latest Existing Home Sales Report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows housing supply is still astonishingly low. Today, we have a 2.6-month supply of homes at the current sales pace. Historically, a 6-month supply is necessary for a ‘normal’ or ‘neutral’ market in which there are enough homes available for active buyers (see graph below):

What Does This Mean for You?

When the supply of homes for sale is as…

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Boston-based law firm Goulston & Storrs is moving its headquarters to the remade One Post Office Square, taking 100,000 sq ft of office space.  The move is anticipated to take place in 2024.  You can read more about it at the Boston Business Journal.

One Post Office Square is being completely redeveloped with an all-glass exterior replacing its concrete facade and a total renovation of the interior space.  It is just one of many projects set to transform the Financial District and Midtown, including Winthrop Center, the 53-story tower including office space and 317 luxury homes closing this spring.


Interested in learning more about the area and the planned redevelopments?  Contact me for more information!

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