Perils of renting in Davis Sq/Somerville (Boston Globe)?

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Hi, is this consistent with your own observations about the rental market around Davis Sq? Could any real estate person comment on this?

"With the vacillations and the range in prices, “I’ve never seen a rental market like this in all my 20 years of renting real estate,” said realtor Irene Bremis."

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/somerville/2009/09/the_summer_switchover.html

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

It's a very interesting topic, although the article sums up its own circularity at the end with the assertion that the market will sort itself out. I believe it will.

My observation this summer was just as the article described:

Real estate prices were often down, but not as far as I would have liked them to be, and rental prices were all over the place. There were some amazingly crappy apartments (for rent or for purchase) going for big money, and some great deals, especially in rental.

My theory is that the market principles can be extended beyond Somerville. Unlike Manhattan, which is surrounded by a physical barrier containing stratospheric real estate prices, there is no such barrier around Somerville, other than a psychological one. We've already seen development in areas of Medford (the Kennedy? School Condominiums) and the transit oriented development at Wellington Circle. More choices are a result of an overheated Somerville market, in my opinion, as is the call for more public transportation (the green line extension).

So yeah, I think the market will sort itself out. I'm just glad for now that there are an increasing number of options.