The Price of Parking in Boston

The news that Back Bay parking spaces fetch a quarter million does two things for me: 1. it provides support for my argument that my condo is overassessed by the City of Boston (I don't have a parking space); 2. it puts me out of the market (I'd just started to look for a parking space to buy).

$250,000 for an open alley spot.  That's roughly 53 years of monthly parking at the Prudential Garage, under a roof.  But this stuff is subjective.  There are lots of people who want the car by the back door.  Who really want the car by the back door.

It's not a bad investment, though.  When I moved here four years ago, spots were trading around $100,000.

Comments

[Malnurtured Snay]

Holy sheeeeeeeet. I bet he drives a Ford Festiva, too. "I woulda bought an Aston Martin, but, y'know, after buying the parking space, I was out of cash!" How do you keep your parking space clear when you're not around? In Baltimore when it snows, people dig their cars out and leave furniture to mark the spot. Is that how it is in Boston? You pay a quarter mill for a spot and drag chairs out to mark it?

(I wish I had 250k to spend on a parking spot).

[carpundit]

These spots are private property, with a deed recorded with the county. Often, the deed is merged with the condominium deed (or with the building deed if it's a single family), but sometimes not. If someone parks in your spot, you call a tow company to get rid of him. Or push his car out of the way with your Range Rover. Whichever.

The public street spots are defended with chairs and garbage cans, with mixed results.

[Erik]

If the standard is an empty 15x8 piece of pavement is worth $250,000, I'd say your apartment is under-assesed, not over.

[carpundit]

If only I could get my car into my apartment....

No, it helps me because comparably-sized apartments with one or two parking spaces are similarly assessed. If the guy on the next block in a better apartment of the same size has two deeded spots, mine ought to be assessed lower than his. I have several such examples at my fingertips.

[Erik]

Are spaces deeded seperately from condo's? Do you get a discrete tax bill for your parking space?

If I have a condo with a space and I sell the space, can I apply to have my assesment reduced by the amount of the sale?

If I sell my condo but keep my space (for the sake of argument, say I work in the neighborhood) do I receive a tax bill for just the parking space?

[carpundit]

In order:

Sometimes separate, but usually not;
Yes, if the deeds are separate;
Yes, if you are within the statutory appeal period;
Yes.

[Erik]

Remind me not to buy property in Boston.

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Closing Thoughts: You could have skipped the first 30 minutes of this show and missed very little of consequence. How hard could it be to either edit the promos out or do a new ad? The second half saved it with two memorable segments, the Anthony vignette and the promo by Daniels. The only good match was the tag bout. Barzini/ Lightning and O/ Crow were OK matches with lousy finishes. It never ceases to amaze me the way guys will put together a match with all kinds of moves and not take care to hit the most important one- the finish. There wasn’ t anything offensive about Green vs. Payne. But nothing especially good either. Green reminds me of Slim J (NWA Anarchy) at an early stage of development. Green should delete the Stinger splash from his repetoire- it’ s not a move most little guys lok good doing. Payne makes me think of 80s wrestler Doug Sommers. The announcers fawn over Steve O like he’ s a top level babyface. Based on the last two weeks, I don’ t get what they see in him, although his match this week was a big improvement. Airing promos for matches that aren’ t happening does not speak well for Main Event’ s quality control. Neither did the camera work on this show, as they missed two finishes. Today’ s fans have seen so much, it’ s tough for anything to generate a visceral response, but the Anthony vignette did it for me. There’ s a bizarre and twisted form of genius at work here– a truly memorable segment. I enjoyed Pearce’ s promo. As far as TV helping to draw crowds, Mike Sircy’ s biggest card of the year featuring the NWA World Title match had the benefit of ads on both SAW and Main Event and drew no better than they did the month before. The tag match had a very good finishing sequence. Falk worked his ass off again. There were points in last week’ s match where Falk appeared to be reach beyond the limits of his athletic ability, but not a problem this week. The Stevens/ Anthony brawl was not as effective as the clips of their brawl from the previous week. The action was fine, but the segment cried out for a second camera or a better angle or anything to get close to the action. I loved Daniels promo. The guy could always talk. The crucial thing was his personal guarantee of a violent stipulation match for the big show. This was the poor compared to the previous two Main Event shows.