Real Estate Search Blog

In 2009, 54% of people that bought real estate in Massachusetts said that they believed their new home was a better financial investment than stocks. The statistic comes from a study published on February 9th, 2010 by the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS®. An additional 29% of buyers said that their new home was as good as an investment as stocks. For sellers of property, the feelings were positive as well. Sellers in Massachusetts typically sold their properties at 94% of their asking price.

Why buy property in Boston? Massachusetts property, particularly in-demand Boston real estate, is an excellent opportunity to invest. Right now there are hundreds of condos in Boston, single-family homes in Boston, and multi-family homes in Boston that are on the market — and offered at a great value. Rental property in Boston will always be in demand due to the large number of students and working professionals entering the market at any given time. Buying real estate in Boston is a great opportunity to earn extra income, and hold onto a valuable asset for your future or for the future of your children and loved ones.

Buyers, and tentative buyers, of foreclosed properties in several Boston neighborhoods may be eligible for low-interest loans or grants up to $50,000 for purchase or renovation costs. See this Boston Herald article on the $13.6 million dollar grant recently awarded to Boston by the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

For in-depth information about real estate in Boston and its surrounding neighborhoods, visit Prudential Prime Properties on the web. Once there, you can search Back Bay Boston Homes for Sale, Beacon Hill Realty, North End Boston Condos for Sale & Boston Rentals.

When shopping for homes you should keep in mind the future value of your home, whether you plan on one day selling it for your retirement or leaving it to your loved ones. Whether your plan is to purchase a home as an investment or to make it your family’s first home, there are several things to research before you buy. You can find the answers to the questions below on the Internet and by visiting the neighborhood and dropping in on its local businesses.

What is the state of the neighborhood?

• Basic needs for future buyers include a low crime rate, parks and recreation facilities, transportation routes (bus stops or train stations), and nearby shopping areas.
• Neighboring homes should be well-maintained.

Visit the schools!

• You can look at public schools on the Internet, but you’ll never know the actual school environment until you visit the school itself.

Are people moving in or moving out?

• Do a Google search for the street you’d like to buy on to see if any of the nearby homes are for sale.

How’s business?

• Aside from checking out the local businesses, you can also visit the town hall or city hall to find out future developments in or around your neighborhood. Developments can increase or decrease surrounding property value and taxes.

Before doing any of the research above, make sure you like what you see in your future neighborhood. Will you enjoy spending time in the area, taking walks with your kids, visiting the local restaurants or cafes? Or area you simply focusing on the best bang for your buck, and not taking the local area into consideration?

For help on browsing Boston real estate, consider the real estate agents at Prudential Prime Properties. Prudential Prime Properties has years of experience helping people find homes in Boston. The firm has years of experience helping residential, commercial, and rental clients find properties. For additional insight on buying real estate in Boston, refer to the Categories list on the right column of this blog.

Looking for condos in Boston? Have the pre-conceived notion that every property will be built from brownstone or brick and have a wrought-iron gate? Think again. The following are some options in Boston real estate that have been built to please the contemporary palate.

The condo pictured above is a one-bedroom located in the XII Stoneholm Building, right in the Back Bay. Its 11 foot high ceilings, floor to ceiling windows, and great storage space will make you feel right at home. If you’re looking for condos in Boston that are close to Newbury Street and Boylston Street, this home might fulfill all your needs and more. The building even has a rooftop pool!

FP3 Boston

The Seaport District in Boston has recently spurred much buzz around town as being the hottest place to snag a luxury condo. FP3 offers some of the swankest luxury condos in Boston, one of which is pictured above. The studio includes an amazing terrace and floor to ceiling windows for drop-dead Boston skyline and ocean views.

Don’t just stop here! There are hundreds of condos in Boston currently on the market; many of them luxury condos like the ones pictured above. Whatever your price range, whatever your style, right now there are so many options in Boston real estate to choose from.

Part of the allure of relocating to Boston is being able to take a walk through the city streets and relive the past. Boston has retained much of its original architecture, and is well known in other parts of the country for its charming brownstones and cobblestoned streets.

The South End of Boston is a neighborhood marked by its brick bowfront townhouses and London-style squares. Hunting for homes in the South End presents a unique piece of Boston real estate where one can live in a charming brownstone and have the luxury of being steps away from the newest restaurants, bars, and shops of Tremont Street.

What might you find on a walk through the South End? The following are some notable sights.

Cathedral of the Holy Cross

The South End on a snowy day

SoWa Open Market in the South End

The next time you are in Boston, take a day to explore the South End and you might just fall in love with the neighborhood.

If your investment instincts are tickled by Boston MA real estate’s falling prices, there are some things you should do before you even begin talking to a real estate agent. Knowledge is power. To be well-informed about investing in Boston real estate is to be prepared for any surprises that might occur along the way. The following tips are provided by The National Real Estate Investors Association.

1. Buy your own home first. This is the best practice in the real estate investment process. You could eventually use your first home as an investment and rental unit for when you purchase an “upgrade” property later on down the line.
2. Read up. The original tip here is “go back to school,” but there are plenty of free resources out there that offer more flexibility. Browse the latest books, build an RSS feed of real estate blogs, take an online course, join a local investment group. Sometimes, the best way to learn is by talking to other people, so joining a group may be the most helpful option. You can learn from others’ stories of success (and failure.)
3. Learn your investment market. Again, joining local groups may be your best bet here. Even if you have lived in the Boston area your entire life, you may be unaware of the habits of renters and students. By talking to others with more experience, you’ll learn what to expect when investing in real estate in Boston.

Tourists visit Boston during the holidays each year because the city offers dozens of fun things to do during the holiday season. The city of Boston is arguably one of the best places to live in America purely for its abundance in arts and culture.

First, there is the famous Boston Symphony Orchestra, which puts on several Holiday Pops concerts each year. Many elementary schools both in the city of Boston and in its surrounding suburbs purchase discounted BSO tickets and offer annual field trips for students. Looking at real estate in Boston could offer your children the chance to appreciate music at a young age. And then there is the nationally acclaimed Blue Man Group, which puts on several performances just for Boston. The Boston Ballet’s performance of Nutcracker is always worth seeing, followed by a starlit skate on Boston Common’s Frog Pond.

Boston is certainly not short of opportunities for holiday shopping. There’s Downtown Crossing, Harvard Square, the Prudential Center, Boylston Street, Newbury Street, Copley Place, and the CambridgeSide Galleria, just to name a few places for festive holiday shopping.

One of the things you might be looking for when searching for a new place to live is the quality of the area’s culture. Stated plainly, some cities are not up to par when it comes to the quality of their museums and performance art. The city of Boston offers some of the nation’s best museums and performance groups. Take a look at some of the real estate in Boston, and have no worries when it comes to the quality of your child’s, and your own, life. Whether you are hunting for condos in Boston, townhomes in Boston, brownstones in Boston, or single family homes in Boston, Prudential Prime Properties may have exactly what your looking for.

Boston, MA may be one of the best cities to raise a family. Aside from being recently named one of America’s safest cities, the state of Massachusetts has also been named one of the top ten states for health care needs.

In October, 2009, Forbes.com reported the ten states with the best health care systems, which included Massachusetts. The report was based on a study performed by the New York-based Commonwealth Fund. Health care in Massachusetts was ranked highest among the fifty states.  The report ranked the states across five areas: access to health care, prevention and treatment, potentially avoidable hospital use and costs, health care differences among ethnic and income groups, and “healthy lives.”

If you’re looking to relocate, consider taking a look at the interesting properties that Boston real estate has to offer. It’s no surprise that Boston has ranked one of the healthiest cities in America. Patients from all parts of the country travel to Boston’s Mass General Hospital for the most advanced medical care in the country. The city is small and manageable enough to be known as “the walking city,” yet it is certainly not short of fun things to do for all ages. In any neighborhood in Boston, one can find several parks and playgrounds, such as Downtown’s Boston Common or South Boston’s own Castle Island. The city also continues to grow more and more bicycle-friendly as the years pass.

If you are interested in living in the heart of one of the nation’s healthiest states, there are plenty of homes in Boston and condos in Boston that are worth taking a look at. Whether you are after a small condo, brownstone, or home in the Boston area, browse some of the gems that real estate in Boston has to offer.

Looking to relocate to Boston? If you can imagine yourself spending your Saturdays wandering its quaint cobblestone streets, sipping a glass of merlot over dinner at a dimly lit trattoria, and topping off the night with a cool dish of mint gelato, then the North End might be the right neighborhood for you. Your search for real estate in Boston might just end at one of Boston’s most cultured neighborhoods.

The North End is Boston’s own Italian district, filled with over 100 family-run Italian restaurants, cafes, bakeries, gelato shops, gourmet grocery stores, and clothing boutiques. If you are looking for homes in Boston or condos in Boston, Boston’s North End may offer you an exciting lifestyle with culture right beyond your doorstep.

Prudential Prime Properties is currently featuring two luxury condominiums at 44 Prince Street in Boston’s North End. The properties feature modern finishes with Old World details such as a clock tower, a courtyard with a fountain, a garden, and a fireplace in every unit. Most units also have a patio, balcony, or deck. Pictured below is 44 Prince Street in Boston.

Below are the floorplans for Prudential Prime Property’s two condos in Boston.

The North End is also just steps away from Faneuil Hall, the TD Bank North Garden, Government Center, the Financial District, and the Mass Bay Transit System (MBTA). There’s no better time to check out all that Boston real estate has to offer.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal explores the growing trend of parents buying property in college towns for their son or daughter to live in while attending school. In today’s real estate market, a mortgage for a single-family home in Boston can be cheaper than the cost to rent an apartment or to live in a dorm. The Boston Globe even noted that housing prices continue to fall while “renters feel no relief” – rents remain the same or increase. At public and private universities nationwide, room and board has increased 5% since last year, averaging $7404 per school year for public universities and $8595 for private. With many families struggling to pay rising college fees, a change in housing options can provide huge relief on monthly expenses.

A search through Boston real estate listings pulls up a three-bedroom, one bath condominium on Grant Street in Boston. Close to the UMass Boston campus, this listing would be ideal for a student and a few roommates. A monthly mortgage payment could cost under $2000. To compare the benefit of owning a home to renting an apartment, parents could use Google Maps’ rental search feature to browse apartments listed around UMass Boston. It can cost anywhere between $1500 and $1800 for a 2-bedroom rental, or between $750 and $900 to rent one of the bedrooms. By purchasing a condominium, parents could rent out the two other rooms and cover part of the mortgage each month. The cost to house their son or daughter would be less than the area’s average monthly rent. The parents would be saving money in the short term. Thinking more long-term, a college town has a recession-proof demand for apartment rentals. After graduation, the family could continue renting out the property to college students or to a family.

Buying property in Boston offers relief for families struggling to keep their student in college. The short-term advantages are just as valuable as the long-term benefits.