Boston’s real estate market is one of the most watched in the country and a newly released study has confirmed what many others have found, that Boston offers one of the healthiest and most dynamic real estate market’s in the Northeast. If you already own real estate such as a luxury condo in Boston or if you’re considering investing in the city later it’s worth looking at the study and how Boston ranks when compared with cities across the country.
What The Study Itself Looks Like
The recently released study, which can be found here, looked at 300 different cities, comparing them using “14 relevant metrics” and two dimensions, “Real-Estate Market” and “Affordability & Economic Environment.”
The basic idea is that cities that have a healthy real estate market and general economy are better to live in. Achieving both of these things can be a bit of a challenge, cities that are more prosperous are in higher demand and that tends to drive up housing costs. There are many cities in the US that offer cheap housing but don’t have many opportunities, while on the other end of the spectrum there are large cities with vibrant economies and extremely expensive housing.
The study’s “Real-Estate Market” rank basically looks at how wise it is to invest in local real estate while the “Affordability & Economic Environment” ranking looks at what it’s like to actually live in the area in terms of the cost of living. With this in mind lets look at how Boston ranks and how it compares to other cities.
Boston And Other Cities
One of the simplest ways to explain the study’s findings about Boston is by saying that the city is at the top in terms of large Northeastern cities and in the top 20% of all cities, large and small nation-wide.
When you look at the specifics you can see that many of the common-sense notions about Boston real estate are confirmed, the market is very healthy but it is still costly to enter. It is important to understand these facts in context though, while Boston is costly to live in by and large the Northeast has become a relatively expensive place to live as demand continues to grow faster than the level of available housing can.
Boston has been helped massively by the vibrancy of the local economy. While some may be surprised that Boston came in at 59th overall other large Northeast cities tended to fall much farther down. Washington DC came in at 65, New York City was ranked 181st, Philadelphia found itself at 263 and Baltimore was just over 10 spots from the bottom at 285th.
Boston’s main advantage over other Northeast titans was its real estate, which was ranked as the 40th in the country and 13th in terms of large cities. This means that anyone looking to invest in a Boston luxury condominium is investing in one of the healthiest housing markets a large American city has to offer.
Finding And Investing In A Healthy Housing Market
While the study was positive enough about Boston it was even more clear about real estate as a whole in America, starting out with the simple statement that “Housing’s back.” The fact that the national real estate market has had its ups and downs in recent years shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone but as the study itself says cites the growing job rate, rising rent prices and increased level of general confidence as reason to believe that the housing market is looking very healthy.
But while it may be true that things look rosier than they have in recent memory that doesn’t meant that you want to invest in just any housing market. While the housing crisis may have past the one lesson everyone should take away from it is the importance of caution.
When looking for a place to live you should look at the housing market and factors like job growth, unemployment rate and home-price appreciation. By these metrics and others Boston offers one of the most healthy housing markets in the US and stands out among the large cities of the Northeast. So if you are looking to buy a luxury condo Boston definitely deserves your consideration.
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