Eccentric Flower:199808/a tale of two houses
From Eccentric Flower
«August 1998 «Eccentric Flower
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fourteen august ninety eight eleven a m a tale of two houses Mary Anne comes back from her exodus today. (See the saga of the roadtrip.) She will probably then write email to all her co-conspirators on this web project, asking why they haven't gotten off their posteriors and done anything. Another correspondent who follows my various web antics suggested gently that I may possibly be a wee bit overextended. It's true that do spend an amazing amount of time trying to shuffle between my many projects, most of which don't pay. But I seem to work well when overextended. In fact, I'm beginning to think that it's my natural state. If I'm not overbooked, I will take or make projects until I am. It's like water seeking its own level. Changing the subject to something a little less internal .... There was an article in the Globe today about an odd situation in real estate. The two properties involved are both in a single house - it's a house which was deliberately built as a side-by-side two-family home - it's bisected right down the middle. Each side has its own front door, porch, et cetera. Where I come from they call this a "duplex," but apparently that word isn't used around here. Too nouveau. The curious aspects are: 1. both halves of the house came up for sale at the same time, and 2. the Cambridge/Somerville town line also bisects the house. Each side is 1600 square feet and has seven rooms. Doing the math, you'll see this is not a mansion. Rooms tend to be small here. The Somerville side sold for $340,000. The Cambridge side sold for $375,000. Now, these properties really are exactly identical, except that the Cambridge side has a driveway, which in parking-starved Cambridge is worth about $10,000 by itself. The article was bemoaning the fact that the Somerville property is clearly just as good, and why should a Cambridge address count for more just because it's a Cambridge address? Et cetera. Not until the end of the story, when quoting the people who bought the Somerville half, did they get to what I considered the real issue: Why are all the houses around here so expensive? It's enough to make a future home-buyer (me) despair. (As I have before.) Do you realize what I could get with $350,000 in Baton Rouge? It disheartens me to note that Cambridge is not only unrealistically high - and this was one of the good values, it wasn't in an especially desirable part of Cambridge - it's also pushing up the property in Somerville. I think sometimes, in my weaker moments, that I'd almost rather Somerville remained a blue-collar, high-immigrant, low-income town. The streets would be a little rougher, but at least I'd be able to afford them. © columbine |
