Housing Watch: Simple Finance Edition

Channel 5 reported on a study by PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. yesterday that finds Boston’s hot real estate market may be cooling off in the next two years. There is a predicted 50% chance that the market is ready to cool, and that’s double the year before. There are mixed messages about the vitality of the Boston area real estate market, some area realators predict the market will stay strong a lot longer. Bostonist wonders if the price of property begins to fall, or at least keep a bit more consistent, does this mean that our rent will stop jumping every year? Earlier this week we heard a buzz about Archstone buying up some serious apartment properties in the Boston area. Archstone-Smith, a company based in Colorado with apartments all over the country will be purchasing $1.4 Billion worth of apartments, some of them in Boston (a core market for Archstone). With more property in the hands of a few this usually moves prices in the upward direction. At least the MBTA isn’t planning to increase fares until 2007-so we can still get around for cheap.