Prime Real Estate
What does $300,000 get you? It really depends on where you are. In Lowell, it buys you two multi-family homes. In Greenfield, it buys you 30 acres and a farm house. On Martha’s Vineyard, it buys you a saltbox not too far from the water.
On Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, between Arlington and Berkeley streets, it buys you a parking spot. And no fancy frills, like a garage, or even an awning. It buys you an outdoor, uncovered parking spot.
The spot was sold last week by Coldwell Banker associate Debra Sordillo, and apparently it’s the most expensive parking spot ever sold in Boston. The previous record holder is on the same block, and sold for $250,000. How is it that the bottom has fallen out of Boston’s condo market, but parking spaces are more costly than ever? Talk about supply and demand!
Is there oil under Comm. Ave.? Precious Revolutionary War artifacts buried beneath the pavement? Actually, there probably are. Anyway, the point is with $300,000 you can buy a house in Brighton, knock it down, pave over the land, and have enough left over to buy five brand new cars to park there (admittedly, they’d be Kias).
Let’s hope the owner is parking a Bentley there, or a Bugati, or some vintage beauty like a 1965 Ford Fairlane, fully restored. If you’re paying $300,000 to park a car, it better not be the Teller’s 1987 sky blue Toyota Tercel, that’s all we’re saying.
Realtor Day
Tuesday, June 9 was Realtor Day on Beacon Hill, where hundreds of Realtors descended on the State House to remind their legislators they still exist. The Realtors filled the Great Hall, with dozens standing in the back, and enthusiastically represented their industry.
With all that’s happened in real estate in the last year, one might think that wouldn’t really be necessary, but as Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) Vice President of Government Affairs Barbara Shea McDonald put it, "One person showing up and speaking up can make a difference."
Indeed. We can get behind that. That’s basically the Teller’s whole gig.
Unfortunately, the Teller doesn’t think MAR’s keynote speaker for the event, the honorable Robert DeLeo, Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, was that one person. DeLeo barely got the "showing up" part right, arriving 45 minutes late to give his speech. Hey, he’s a busy guy; the Teller understands that, and applauds him for the work he’s doing in the House.
Apparently so does DeLeo. He started out with a fairly promising statement: "If we’re going to regain the confidence of the people we represent, we’re going to have to address issues that we haven’t addressed in years."
Excellent. The Speaker has a way to restore consumer confidence in the market, so that real estate agents have better tools for the buyers and sellers they represent, right?
Uh, no. He was referring to cleaning up the poison pit in the State House, where the last three Speakers of the House have left under a cloud of corruption. DeLeo explained to the assembled Realtors about the reforms he was making in ethics, state pensions and transportation for about 10 minutes, and then excused himself.
That’s fine work, and obviously much needed. But what the heck does that have to do with Realtors?
"Making government more efficient helps business," DeLeo said. "We are committed to succeeding in that work."
He had nothing to say about the eight bills on MAR’s legislative priority docket, which the entire room learned about from MAR General Counsel Steve Ryan while waiting for the Speaker to show up in the first place.
The Teller knows the headline: "Pol applauds self, says nothing in speech" shouldn’t come as a shock. It’s business as usual. But hey, somebody has to show up and speak up if there is any hope for change, right?
