The economy and the collapse of the housing bubble gets much of the blame in yesterday’s Globe piece, but there is more too it then that.
If anything, home prices are still extravagantly high in Greater Boston, with some suburbs almost back to bubble years’ levels and others having seen declines far short the big drops common elsewhere in the country.
It just takes a lot to get onto the first rung of the housing ladder in the Boston area – you have to be bringing in, individually or collectively, six figures to afford the median-priced home.
The median sale price in Middlesex Country, covering the western suburbs, stood at $354,000, year-to-date, in April, while Norfolk County weighed in at $333,500 and Suffolk at $277,500, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker Tradesman.
Expectations may be high as well on part of some Gen Y buyers – the Globe piece cites a couple in their late 20s who is holding out for a three bedroom so they won’t have to move in five years when they start having kids.
Yet you’ll have to pay more to get a home you can grow into – at least one that doesn’t need major work.
Given Boston area prices, this is one of the toughest markets anywhere for young buyers to break into.
Are you in your twenties or early thirties and looking at buying a home? What’s your experience right now?