someone to gather statistics on what kinds of mortgages people are getting in Back Bay (or any

other Boston Neighborhood). Some the statistics that could be put together include loan-to-sales

price ratio, jumbo vs. conventional vs. piggy-back mortgages, fixed vs. ARM, etc.

Here’s

the URL for the Web site:

http://www.masslandrecords.com/malr/index.htm

I was looking

at recent sales in the South End and I was surprised how many folks were getting near million

dollar mortgages.

attorney here. I assure you that most young attorneys are not paying cash for their condos as many

of us do have considerable student loan debt and even if we didn’t while our pay is pretty good

its not $1 mill in the bank good. That being said I think many of us, especially those married to

other young attorneys or doctors, are buying $1 million condos. We’re just taking out mortgages

and using the appreciation from our starter condos as the down payment. Its very difficult in this

area to find a non-starter condo w/ parking, 2 beds and 2 baths for under $1 million so while we

aren’t rolling in dough we’re just sucking it up to get a home that we can live in for more than

a few years.

that’s just not true. I know plenty of young doctors and lawyers, none of whom could even come

close to putting down 20% on a $1M place, let alone buying it outright. In fact, they are almost

all heavily in debt from school. The demography of the Back Bay is heavily skewed toward younger

people, not mature doctors and lawyers with a lifetime of savings.

And money managers are

probably far more recession prone than most professions, though I think that if they were lucky and

got out at the right time, they are the only ones out of the group that you listed who could pay

cash from their own earnings. If other people are paying cash, I would guess it is most likely

from mommy and daddy.

any wonder? I expect this number will continue to climb, and climb hard. The Back Bay is home to

the elite. And by that I mean well-educated, well-heeled individuals with huge, recession-proof

incomes: doctors, lawyers, money managers. People in this realm are immune to interest rates, they

pay cash and they get what they want, when they want it. They are not terribly sensitive to

prices.