Jim Morrison
Two condos, both very close to the Charles River but on opposite sides, sold during the third week of May for just over $7 million (with no mortgages, by the way), but the stories of those sales could hardly be more different.
The first, located at 245 Commonwealth Ave. in Boston, is a newly-renovated, four-bedroom, five-bathroom condo with four deeded parking spaces. It was originally listed for $8.65 million in January 2015 and finally – after several price reductions – sold in May 2016 for $7.16 million, 18 percent less than it was originally listed for. Ouch. That works out to a very respectable $1,631 per square foot.
Up the river, 975 Memorial Drive #1105 in Cambridge, is about half the square footage of the first unit. It is a three-bedroom, four-bathroom with one parking space in a building loaded with amenities and has great views of the Charles River. It was listed for $6 million in April and sold three weeks later for $7.1 million – $1.1 million over its asking price and $3,272 per square foot. Wow.
They’re both great condos in great condition and in great locations. How to explain why one sold for over a $1 million above the asking price and the other went for more than $1 million below?
It’s that white-hot, high-end, luxury-condo-in-the-city market. And nobody thinks it’s going to cool down any time soon.
Or, as Dickens put it, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity.”
