Map of all foreclosures sold in Boston in 2008
Using The Warren Group data, Daigo Fujiwara of the Boston Globe put together this fantastic custom google map displaying all 482 of the foreclosed properties sold in Boston in 2008. Take a look at the map below:
Using this map and also referring to my post here about Boston neighborhoods hardest hit by foreclosure, you can see how foreclosures have concentrated in certain areas. This creates a vast difference in the way the real estate market is behaving throughout Boston. What is most interesting is the effect foreclosures have on prices. Since the downtown condo market (in neighborhoods like Back Bay, Beacon Hill, South End, North End, etc) has avoided the foreclosure problem, inventory remains limited. Therefore, those neighborhoods have remained remarkably resilient price-wise throughout the downturn. But looking at Dorchester, Mattapan, East Boston, Hyde Park, and Roxbury (the 5 hardest hit neighborhoods in term of percentage of foreclosure in Boston), inventory has skyrocketed as foreclosures flood the market, thereby driving the overall prices down in those areas.
This just goes to prove there is no such thing as a blanket statement that can easily explain the Boston real estate market overall. Just taking a glance at this data, you can see how foreclosure concentration is creating completely different market behavior throughout the city. The same thing is happening both statewide and nationally so it is important to look closely at the market where you intend to buy or sell and really dig into the local data to find out what the market is really doing rather than relying on generalizations often found in the media.
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