in search of a roommate or a new apt...

[cos]

I haven't lived with anyone since laurens10 moved out last summer, and I don't really like having an apt all to myself, I'd like to live with a friend (or a few). I'm also getting tired of throwing so much money away on rent, especially since I'm not even using her former bedroom, now vacant. Unfortunately, all the friends I've wanted to live with who wanted to live with me who I've talked to in the past year, either needed a place that allows cats (this one doesn't), wanted to live in a house (this is an apt building), or, most common of all - couldn't afford the rent. I'm paying $1550, so half of that is $775. But it looks like most of my friends can only afford something around $600-ish, which would leave me paying $950. That's what I was paying for the entire apt back in 1996 when I moved in here! I could afford that (heck, I can afford $1550), but it would still seem like throwing too much money away to make it worth staying in this place.

Does anyone want to come live with me here, who can pay $750-ish in rent and doesn't have a cat? The building is very solid - modern electricals, endless hot water, a separate thermostat for every room, and laundry in the building. There's off-street parking. And the location is great, right on the Cambridge/Somerville line and easy walking distance to Inman Square (3 minutes), Union Square (6 minutes), and Harvard (12 minutes). Also the #83 and #86 busses both go right by here, and there are several great restaurants nearby, a video rental down the block, an ATM, a bar and live music venue, a couple of bakeries, and other stuff. Move in whenever you want.

[Edit: Oh, and if you wanted to find a place actually in the city where it's easy to get to 93 north, the pike, and route 2, this is about the best location you could pick, on balance. Very easy directions to her from those three roads, too, for visitors. So if you drive out of the city a lot, this is a very convenient location, unless the places you want to go are Cape Cod, Rhode Island, or the south shore - 'cause then you have to take the Southeast Distressway :) ]

If I don't find someone within a week who I like and want to live with, who wants to move in sometime in the next few months, then I will move. My lease runs until the end of August, but I could move in July or early August and have some overlap. Do you know of a place I'd like to live? Tell me.

Comments

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

The bubble isn't gonna burst because it's not a bubble. Luxury housing, vacation homes and second homes have bubbles; basic housing does not. People need somewhere to live, and there will always be a demand for housing. Prices on basic housing can stabilize, but they rarely drop significantly -- and if they do, it's because the area has become somewhere where no sane person would want to live.

[cos]

I disagree. I've watched housing prices in the Boston area go through this cycle at least three times by now, where for some period of 3-5 years they shoot up much much faster than inflation or incomes, and then they stagnate for a few years while the rest of the world partly catches up. When housing prices stagnate, the listing prices don't necessarily go down, but effective prices do because there are fewer buyers and the sellers are much more willing to cut deals. My mother's house was one of those - we were the only people who came to the open house. They listed $180K, my mother bought for $150K.

I see a lot of people being chronically unemployed now, and many of them are going back to live with their parents. The rental market already took a dive. Listings are pretty stable, but apartments are actually available for lower prices now through the usual social referral system. These super-low mortgage interest rates are propping housing prices up, but just like those 0% financing deals for cars after 9-11, I don't think they're actually increasing demand in a sustainable way, they're just getting people who would otherwise put off buying a house, to do it now. I think if the economy keeps on stagnating (which is what I expect for the near future), people will put off buying houses in greater numbers, and some sellers will need to sell because they need to money, and the deals will start being easier to find while prices stay stable.

Boston is partly an exception to this sort of thing just because it's so ... complete. In that everywhere that can be built in has been built in and the rest is zoned and protected, with very little space for growth where people want it. But I think even Boston will be affected.