Posted on 06/28/2009 5:34:39 PM PDT by Daffynition
BOSTON -- It's more than many people pay for a house. An unidentified buyer paid $300,000 for a coveted private parking space in Boston's Back Bay Wednesday.
It is the most expensive parking space in the city's history, according to Debra Sordillo of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, who brokered the deal.
Sordillo said that several residents at 48 Commonwealth Ave. engaged in a bidding war for the space, driving the original asking price of $250,000.
The prime space is in a neighborhood just a block from the Public Garden, where parking spots are in short supply.
"There's only so many parking spaces in the city," Sordillo said. "And in this part, there's very few. It’s all a question of supply and demand."
While the Back Bay is one of Boston's most affluent neighborhoods, the median sale price for a house in Boston is now $365,000 according to the Web site housingtracker.net
The $300,000 parking space is outdoors and uncovered. One condominium in the building is currently for sale at $2.5 million.
The previous record for a parking space was set in 2007, when a buyer paid $250,000 for a spot at 31-33 Commonwealth Ave, according to Debra Taylor Blair of Boston’s Listing Information Network.
Housing bubble still not deflating...
Still plenty of fools with a lot of money out there.
An ordinary car for an extraordinary parking spot.
Pictured here is the view looking west from the State House around 1830. The Mill Dam, shown here, extended out as Beacon St. all the way to Brookline. The near in shoreline to its left was the edge of the Public Garden. The Boston neighborhoods of the Back Bay, Kenmore and much of the South End were uninhabitable salt marsh.
In the 90’s I moved to Comm Ave. and Gloucester and got about 10 parking tickets in the first two months.
An impossible situation, and I had friends who parked their cars across the Charles in Cambridge at monthly lots.
Not even sure this is the owner of the spot .... but that is the spot ....could be someone posing. So far, we don’t know what the owner’s car looks like.
FWIW, in Boston, you don’t have a fancy car unless you have it garaged. Period. These spots are in the open and in alley ways and anything can happen there.
Then the city steps in & declares condemnation and tears down buildings & spaces.
Same condo would be a couple of mil today.
If the buyer can get a 5% “mortgage” on this, it’s costing him $15K/year, or $1250/month, or about $40/day for the convenience of parking exactly where he wants. Not a bad deal if you’re rich, especially if you can find a way to write it off your taxes.
I used to live on Marlborough St. back in the late 80s-early 90s. I never even considered owning a car until I moved to the North Shore - too much of a hassle and the insurance rates were murder.
>>> Condo’s on Commonwealth ave.in the 80’s were only 80k <<<
I vaguely recall a friend buying a tiny 1br on Marlboro (with rooftop deed) for something like that, maybe closer to 90k+.
I paid $1,200/month for my studio on Comm Ave in the early 90’s.
So...they are going to park a camper on it, right?
In 1982 I paid 575 a month for a rent controlled apartment at 82 Comm ave. that included heat, water and a parking space.
LOL ... I lived on the west corner of Comm and Dartmouth ....didn’t have a car ... didn’t need one b/c the public transportation was so convenient [that’s relatively speaking of course].
Once I parked my brother’s car around the corner, on Comm towards Exeter...when I went out to fill the meter ...ALL the cars had been towed, except mine ...and it wasn’t in the spot I left it in ....but they had left it at the corner. I think it was b/c it had out-of-state plates. Really.
OMG! You found my old neighborhood! Cool! ;D
>>>> I used to live on Marlborough St. back in the late 80s-early 90s. <<<<<
My pal who lived on Marlborough finally broke down and bought a real heap of a car, even though he had some kind of primo parking arrangement.
I know more than a few people who work in Boston and could afford this ......easily. It’s a deal.
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