Here's the latest installment of Bates By the Numbers, a weekly feature by Boston real estate agent David Bates that drills down into the Hub's housing market to uncover those trends you would not otherwise see. Check out his ebook, Context: Nine Key Condo Markets.
If you're still wondering what to get the people and places of the Boston real estate market this holiday season, here are a few ideas.
If you want to give the entire Greater Boston market a gift, list your condo. Only gifts wrapped in Tiffany blue will elicit such excited reactions this holiday season.
You could get Mayor Menino a development project. The closer he gets to leaving office, the more he seems to love new construction.
For all the buyers you know, just wrap up accepted offers. This is the hottest buyer gift in years, perfect for everyone from the "low-baller" to the "I'll go as much over ask as I can afford."
If you think a buyer you know may have already gotten an accepted offer, you could put a fixed interest rate in their stocking. By the end of 2014, they'll love the locked-in rate you got them.
The gift for any seller is obvious: They've been asking every holiday ad infinitum for a dream price for their dream home. Pick it up before someone else beats you to it.
For the myriad of Boston developers putting up high-end apartment buildings, lots of long-term renters is a great gift idea.
A few Green Line stops for the City of Somerville would also be a wicked awesome present. Some say Somerville is getting Green Line stops on its own, but that rumor has been going on so long (since 1990) that it's approaching holiday urban myth status. And how cool would it be to get them before New Year's?
Stumped for Brookline? A grant that would let the town build new grade schools while simultaneously keeping the current real estate tax rate would be as exciting as buying iPads for every resident.
Southie? How about 1,000 parking spaces accompanied by several hundred random household objects like chairs and ironing boards to mark who they belong to after snowstorms.
For the tenants you know: flat rents.
For the landlords: 100 percent occupancy.
For the vacant lots: the highest and best use.
For the most valuable condominium neighborhoods: a few record-high sales.
For the up-and-coming areas: momentum.
For the dilapidated old building down the street: redevelopment.
For the innovation unit developers: a couple of family-friendly units to put in the mix.
For millennials: moderately priced housing stock, condos and rentals.
From me to you: joy, hope, peace and luck. Have fantastic holidays!
· Our Bates By the Numbers archive [Curbed Boston]