“…at least I have my good appliances.”

Maybe I listen to too much WBUR (although, as someone who writes about and works in Cambridge, I suppose I ought to consider that impossible), but I think Radio Boston host David Boeri dug up a great soundbite from a Dorchester shopper on today’s Morning Edition.

Customer: I’ve been planning this kitchen for four-to-five years, so I saved for my appliances.

David: And your decisions now aren’t affected by your, by whats going on…

Customer: No.

David: …in the world around…?

Customer: Because it’s gonna get better. You just have to be patient. It’s gonna get better, and at least I have my good appliances.

So really, I don’t think I have to say anything more than that. Nice appliances, people. In these times of economic uncertainty, they matter. These open houses have them. The time to buy is now.

249 Beacon St #3
Back Bay, MA 02116
2 beds, 2.5 baths
2,108 Sq. Ft.
$1,599,000
Sunday, October 5, 2008 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

129 Mount Vernon St #3
Beacon Hill, MA 02108
2 beds, 1 bath
975 Sq. Ft.
$865,000
Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

332 Franklin St #701
Cambridge, MA 02139
2 beds, 1.5 baths
1,062 Sq. Ft.
$545,000
Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Megalomaniacal Financial Fantasies…and Open Houses in Salem

In these times of uncertainty and woe, the dedicated real estate voyeur has a lot on his plate. I just pulled up the Redfin map of Salem, and I can’t see the streets for all of the little green “for sale” icons. A bit overloaded, I started to wonder what it would cost to buy Salem. All of it. Every property that’s for sale. Give them away to my friends, start a multicultural colony of artists and intellectuals…the Paris of the North Shore….

I have lottery tickets that I don’t check, too, because when you check them you know you’ve lost.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks. I realized I had been writing about the bailout as if it had already happened…and maybe for good reason. Knowing how many dishonest folk are losing their shirts is pretty satisfying, but it isn’t all indictments and FBI fraud investigations.

I spoke to a couple of people who have been patiently hunting for condos and houses for the last year and a half. When my friend Rachel told me she was waiting for prices to fall again, I thought she was delirious (but you’re still not getting a 2-bedroom condo in Cambridge for $140,000, sweetie).

This is what really, really, really sucks: a lot of those people had the savings they were waiting to use for a down invested, directly or indirectly, in the market — I mean, bank interest has been terrible for a decade, so of course they did. Their parents did, too, so there goes the little bit of help they were hoping for. A lot of this cash was sitting in very conservative funds, with the backing of the most stalwart of all investments to keep it safe and growing: mortgage backed securities. That’s where most of my 403B losses came from — 15.9% down this year…the last time I dared look….

Student loan funds are considered really, really conservative, too — mainly because you can’t default on them, or you become Sallie Mae’s indentured servant (what IS it with these weird bank names?)

You can still do it. You just have to cut back hard, and you have to find an inexpensive community with great access to workplaces. In Salem, you can do it in style.

Check us out this weekend; Salem is a party for the month of October.

3 West Terrace
Salem, MA 01970
Beds: 3/Baths: 1
SQ.FT.: 1485
$299,900
Open House: Sunday, October 5, 2008 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

216 Canal Street
Salem, MA 01970
Beds: 3/Baths: 1.5
SQ.FT.: 1835
$ 309,000
Open House: Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM
5 Cross Street
Salem, MA 01970
Beds: 4/Baths: 2.5
SQ.FT.:1600
$ 249,950
Open House: Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

Reasonable Houses in Salem
Boston Sweet Digs Home

Open Houses Without the Extra $135,000 Mortgage

Here’s an interesting fact: according to the American Automobile Association, the average cost of car ownership and maintenance for a typical car in 2006 was $7,800 a year. That includes all the costs that make car ownership such a drag — gas, parking, insurance, visits to the mechanic. The average family has to earn almost $10,000 in pretax salary, just to pay for one car. Add two cars to the mix (as many families have) and that’s $20,000 of a family’s hard-earned salary going just to feed and maintain two cars.

What’s this got to do with real estate?

Simply this — as real estate developer and professor Christopher B. Leinberger has noted, owning just one car is the equivalent of having an additional $135,000 mortgage in your life after you deduct mortgage interest. Not exactly a recipe for wealth.

So in light of the tyranny of the car, I thought it was worth visiting Brookline open houses this weekend where you could conceivably ditch one or more car, helping to simultaneously clean up the environment, de-stress your life and substantially enrich your bank account. All three of these properties are near the T and bus lines as well as stores and shops.

25 Green Street, #1
Brookline
BEDS:2/BATHS:2
Sq.Ft: 1488
$598K
Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

1070 Beacon Street, #5A
Brookline
BEDS:2/BATHS:1
SQ.FT:972
$439K
Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

922 Beacon Street, #33
Brookline
BEDS:1/BATHS:1
SQ.FT:585
$369K
Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:30 PM – 2:15 PM

Sweet Digs Boston Home
Brighton/Brookline Archives

Our Dear, Departed Gilman Square

The Somerville News recently featured an article about a garage formerly used by notorious (and still uncaptured) Boston mobster Whitey Bulger. Apparently the mob boss—whose persona inspired Jack Nicholson’s character in the Oscar-winning Scoresese flick The Departed—used the place to dispatch rivals, or at least make them offers they couldn’t refuse.

The garage is in Winter Hill (thus the name “Winter Hill Gang“), but more specifically, in Gilman Square. But even with all the depraved stuff that must have gone down under the ominous trap door of that place, the worst crime ever committed in Gilman was not against any one person, but against the neighborhood itself.

Check out the painting of Gilman Square in the from the Early 20th century above. Lush green space, a train stop the foreground, storefronts and apartments. Beautiful, mixed-use, transit oriented development; the sort of place almost anyone would want to live.

But today, Gilman is almost unrecognizable. This is a different angle, but the white building in the old photo is the brick one in the foreground. The most notable aspects of the formerly bustling intersection are a pair of uninviting gas stations, a dreary abandoned warehouse, and the Paddock Family Restaurant.

Fortunately, as the owners of the church that bought Whitey’s old place can tell you, things are looking up for Gilman. The place is scheduled to get a T stop with the Green Line extension to Medford. Hopefully, the abandoned structures, ugly parking lots, and battered pavement will—like Whitey before them—become a dark blotch in the history of this otherwise pleasant neighborhood.

222 Pearl St, #2
Somerville, MA 02145
2 beds, 2 baths
1,200 sq. ft.
$339,000

30 Richdale Ave
Somerville, MA 02145
4 beds, 1.5 baths
1,938 sq. ft.
$149,500

16 Maple Ave #3
Somerville, MA 02145
2 beds, 1 bath
955 sq. ft.
$298,000

Best Place for Boston Singles: Beacon Hill

Boston Sweet Digs Home

Reasonable Houses in Salem

Here are three houses under $300,000 in Salem.  I wish I could, like the president, insist that it’s imperative that you act right now — but we’re not buying that anymore.  My prediction: February and March are going to be brutal for sellers, and a lot of them who don’t need to sell will pull their houses and wait, quite literally, for bluer skies.  Those are going to be great months to buy bank-owned properties…and, well, it serves them right.

In the meantime, look at these perfectly nice houses:

1 Flynn Street Address
Salem, MA 01915
Beds: 3/Baths:1
SQ.FT.:1560
$285,000

16 Rice Street Address
Salem, MA 01915
Beds: 3/Baths:1.5
SQ.FT.: 1126
$217,900

121 Highland Avenue
Salem, MA 01970
Beds: 3/Baths:1.5
SQ.FT.: 2278
$280,000
No Bailout — Holy Cow!

Boston Sweet Digs Home

Best Place for Boston Singles: Beacon Hill

Would you have imagined that Boston is the 7th best city for singles in America? Yes, even with our miserable winters and lack of romantic outlooks (unless you count the Green Monster), apparently this is a great place for people to find love. Or at least a better place than, say, Indianapolis or New York City.

While I don’t much see the appeal of trying to meet that special someone by screaming in each other’s ears over “Shipping Up To Boston” at some underlit, overpriced Faneuil Hall hole in the wall, but once you’ve got someone who’s piqued your interest, the Hub does have some decent places for real dates.

And personally, I think the best place for heading out to these events—or for stopping in for coffee afterward—is in Beacon Hill. All four T lines at your doorstep, the Common in your backyard, all manner of historic site within a few minutes’ walk, not to mention a few bars…what more could you ask for, oh single Bostonian?

60 Myrtle St #10
Beacon Hill, MA 02114
2 beds, 1 bath
510 sq. ft.
$380,000

145 Pinckney St #204
Beacon Hill, MA 02114
1 beds, 1 bath
625 sq. ft.
$385,000

26 Mt Vernon St #4R
Beacon Hill, MA 02108
1 bed, 1 bath
546 sq. ft.
$409,000

Don’t Quote Me on This, but…

Boston Sweet Digs Home

Photo: flickr user boston wedding photographer lisa rigby under cc-by-nd-2.0