04/05/2004: 
Urban Archaeology
Can't Afford Room & Board Or Off-Campus Housing For Your Brat? Buy 'em A Condo
from undisclosed source
"In Boston, with perhaps the nation's largest concentration of students, Joe Pucillo, zipRealty's district director for Massachusetts, calls the condo-buying phenomenon: ‘one of the hugest trends we've seen.'... A parent can purchase a $150,000 condominium in the Allston and Brighton neighborhoods between Boston College and Boston University and pay just $1,300 to $1,500 a month in mortgage and condo fees, Pucillo says. With units in those communities appreciating at 8% to 11% a year, ‘if you look at cost to own, it's almost a wash,' he observes. ‘So it's a no-brainer.'" (Barron's) Our take: Because real estate values always go up two-three times faster than incomes do.
