bostonbubble.com

[srepmap]

Or are the housing prices in greater Boston absurd? When I first began househunting in 2003, I wanted to spit nails when I saw the prices. Since then, things have only gotten worse. The prices have come down a little in the past year, but not much. How can a couple that grosses about $80,000 own a house like the one they grew up in . . . that house on a quiet street, with a two-car garage and a fenced in yard? They can't! My husband and I bought a two-family house in Revere so that the rental income would offset the mortgage a little bit. We have a large, beautiful house, but we can barely pay our bills. We've always wanted to a build a house but a piece of land costs $300,000 - which is the maximum we could afford for the house plus the land. If we didn't have so much family here, we would have moved along time ago . . . to somewhere where we could afford a single family house in a nice neighborhood. Is anyone else feeling a frustrated as I am?

[admin]

[Booba]

[Dorchester grandma]

My realtor tells me that if a property is priced right it sells and he seems to be correct. I saw a very attractive single family which was selling for $175 (bank owned, in Lynn). Yes it needed work but the neighborhood was nice, it had a yard and a fireplace. It had just gone on the market and was sold in two days.

Unfortunately I was unable to see it immediately due to my work schedule and I know that I could not win a bidding war anyway because buying alone, I have limited resources.

If more properties were priced right then there would not be so many competing for one house. Nothing has changed for all practical purposes. It is still tough out there.