Page 18 - New England Condominium February 2020

18 NEW ENGLAND CONDOMINIUM -FEBRUARY 2020 NEWENGLANDCONDO.COM Located Throughout New England Servicing the Northeast, Free Estimates Fully Insured, Certified by NADCA 1-800-442-8368 customerservice@ductandvent.com www.ductandvent.com Duct & Vent Cleaning of America, Inc. CONDOMINIUM MARKETPLACE “ e Directory to Everything You Need” MARCUS ERRICO EMMER & BROOKS, P.C. Representing Over 4,000 Condominium Associations... One Association at a Time 45 Braintree Hill Park, Suite 107 Braintree, MA 02184 (781) 843-5000/Braintree (508) 791-2120/Worcester (401) 351-2221/Rhode Island www.meeb.com | law@meeb.com MEEB_NEC_June14.qxp:Layout 1 5/19/14 12 ACCOUNTANTS Goodman, Shapiro & Lombardi, LLC Concentrating in condominium and real estate law in MA & RI www.goshlaw.com (877)-241-1600 NECondoClassifiedAd7-7-17woNH.indd 1 7/7/2017 1:09:16 PM Flynn Law Group 185 Devonshire St., Suite 401 • Boston, MA 02110 617-988-0633 “Quality Representation at Reasonable Rates - $150/Hr.” Contact Attorney Frank Flynn Frank@fl ynnlaw-ne.com www.fl ynnlaw-ne.com ATTORNEYS Merrill & McGeary 100 State Street, Suite 200 Boston, MA 02109 617-523-1760 • Fax 617-523-4893 Contact: Mike Merrill, Esq. mmerrill@merrillmcgeary.com DUCT/DRYER VENT CLEANING INDOOR AIR QUALITY • VENTILATION • DUCT CLEANING AIR DUCT & DRYER VENT CLEANING 800-893-1117 www.continentalcleanair.com Property Managers • Multi Units • Associations • Condos Continental clean:Layout 1 12/22/09 11 David A. Levy, CPA, P.C. Certified Public Accountants 20 Freeman Place Needham, MA 02492 Tel: (617) 566-3645 (866) 842-0108 Fax: (866) 681-2377 www.DALCPAPC.net DAL CPA See Our Display Ad on Page 17 BetterVent is a NEW kind of Indoor Dryer Vent. www.adr-products.com 1-888-609-5512 Condominium and Real Estate Law Phone: (781) 817-4900 Direct: (781) 817-4603 Fax: (781) 817-4910 We may be dressed up, but we aren’t afraid to get our hands dirty. www.lawmtm.com Solving your problems today & strengthening your association for tomorrow. 6 Lyberty Way, Suite 201 Westford, MA 01886 (978)496-2000 www.perkinslawpc.com Accounting • Auditing • Taxes • Consulting Worcester 67 Millbrook Street 508-797-5200 Grafton 80 Worcester Street 508-839-0020 Holden 795 Main Street 508-829-5544 M Love Associates, & LLC Certified Public Accountants Serving Condominium Associations mlove 2.25 x 2.5 condo association color 9.19.2017.indd 1 9/19/17 12:59 PM BANKING See Our Display Ad on Back Cover Please submit Pulse items to Pat Gale at patgale@yrinc.com See Our Display Ad on Page 9 See Our Display Ad on Page 16 younger purchasers are especially sensi- tive to cost, and a difference of even $100 per month could change their ability to carry the costs of the apartment. It’s cer- tainly something that lots of buyers take into account – otherwise brokers would not promote ‘low maintenance’ as a sell- ing point.” Fixed Income Residents As mentioned previously, another po- tential negative impact of rising monthly costs hits those residents living on fixed incomes, such as is the case with many retirees. “Many owners are on a fixed in- come and find it much more challenging to pay their maintenance fees,” says Kra- vit. “The increase in delinquencies and foreclosures had a significant impact on the budget process back in 2010. Many properties included a ‘bad debt’ line item expense – though trying to estimate and calculate bad debt proved to be a difficult undertaking.” Some boards of trustees find them- selves having to raise their fees to cover the negligence of others. Past boards may have waived collecting for the reserves, or opted to only partially fund them. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have revised their financing package require- ments where 10 percent of a condomin- ium’s budget is to be earmarked for the reserve fund. The purpose of the revision was to protect the lenders’ and buyers’ investment. If no reserves were allocated, capital improvements exceeding $10,000 would require special assessments. None of this makes fee increases pop- ular or welcome, but Calabar sums it up succinctly: “The best way to present an increase \[to your residents\] in positive, community-forward terms is to explain to the residents the reasons why a small annual increase is a better financial plan- ning tool than one where the community suddenly realizes that because they have failed to appropriately account for infla- tion and other increases in budgetary items, they must adopt a large increase.” n Cooper Smith is a regular contributor to New England Condominium. MAINTENANCE... continued from page 17 housing proposed. Th e second plan’s letter of intent, fi led on the the same day as the fi rst, indicates plans to redevelop 75 Morrissey Boulevard, the long-vacant site of former television station WB56 headquarters. Developer David Raf- ferty plans two residential towers on the site, one at 15 stories and the other at 17 stories, with a total of 608 apartments. Raff erty proposed a much larger plan for the site more than a year ago that would have brought both towers up to 24 stories, with 700 apartments between them. Th e scaled-down concept currently fi led with the BPDA comes aft er months of discussion with the agency over its Article 80 Develop- ment Review Process as well as the develop- ment’s potential community benefi ts. Th e neighboring site is the former Boston Globe headquarters, currently being remod- eled and rebranded as Th e Beat: a mixed-use offi ce, light industrial, and warehouse space, reports the Herald. Between that property and the JFK/UMass Red Line stop are three neighboring properties along Morrissey Boulevard that Raff erty’s commercial real estate company—Morrissey CFL Holdings LLC—owns. Raff erty acknowledges the potential val- ue for the redevelopment of the commercial properties, but the Herald notes that any re- development there would be a long way off , given the long-term leases of the existing buildings’ current tenants, who include Bea- sley Media Group, Star Market, and Harbor Point Liquor Store. Boston Housing Value Soars During 2010s Curbed Boston reports that the value of Boston-area residential real estate surged during the last decade. Citing a report from real estate listing aggregator Zillow, Curbed reveals that the area saw a 53.3% increase in total market value during the 2010s, grow- ing $294 billion to its current valuation of $845 billion. Th e Zillow data confi rm what followers of Boston real estate already know: housing in Boston is expensive, and getting moreso. Curbed also cites a recent report from ap- praiser Miller Samuel and brokerage Doug- las Elliman that shows that 2019 ended with record high condo prices for downtown Boston, putting it on par with the country’s most expensive cities like New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Th e Zillow report analyzed prices and values throughout the country and quan- tifi ed each region’s appreciation over the decade. While Boston’s exponential gain is remarkable, it only accounts for 2.5% of the nations $33.6 trillion (yes, with a “t”) hous- ing market value. By contrast, New York, a comparable to Boston price-wise, has a current value of $3.179 trillion according to Curbed —a $656 billion gain over the last decade. Los Angeles’s decade increase was a whopping $1.065 trillion, putting its current value at $2.539 trillion. Curbed notes that these impressive num- bers do not bode well for housing availability or aff ordability. Quoting Zillow economist Jeff Tucker, the outlet points out that “‘More and more of the nation’s wealth is now tied up in our homes. … Most of this growth has come from rising prices for the same homes, not from actually building more homes, a troubling trend when it comes to aff ordabil- ity.’” n PULSE... continued from page 6