mondoboston.com

Posted by jenn on January 28th, 2008 in real estate advice, real estate market

Welcome to Mondo Boston!

Searching for a home in Boston can be a daunting task if you live abroad. Mondoboston.com exists to help introduce international buyers to Boston and the home buying process. Use our site to find out more about the logistics of house buying in the United States. Catch up on neighborhood news, surf our links to other Boston real estate websites, and check out our featured house listings. Our neighborhood descriptions can help give you a feel for each downtown neighborhood, and our picks can help you find the best places to find the important stuff in life… like a loaf of crusty bread or a decent wedge of cheese. Ultimately, should you decide you need a realtor, we can even help you find a professional who can work with you in your search for a place to call home.

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Posted by Pam on July 2nd, 2008 in Life in Boston

Maybe you live somewhere else but your heart’s really in Boston. Or maybe you live in Boston and you just can’t get enough. You’re in luck. Boston and surrounding towns and neighborhoods are playing an ever-bigger role on movie screens. So when you want to visit the North End, you can rent “Everyone Wants to Be Italian” and practically smell the cannoli yourself. Or if you’re hankering for a trip to South Boston, you can rent “The Departed” and feel like you’re at a neighborhood pub.  Boston has also acted as a stand-in for other locales — for example, Paris in the upcoming “Pink Panther Deux.”

Last year, nearly a dozen films were filmed in and around Boston. And this year, at this writing, seven film crews have rolled through town. Why all the action? Under a new state law, studios, major producers and filmmakers who shoot at least half of their movie in the Commonwealth are eligible for a tax credit equal to 25 percent of their total spending in Massachusetts, inclusive of any salaries over $1 million. So, increasingly, to Hollywood film crews, filming on the streets of Boston makes financial sense.

 Here are a few upcoming and recent movies filmed in Massachusetts in 2007 and 2008:

In Production:
Ashecliffe, directed by Martin Scorsese, filming in Taunton, MA.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, starring Matt McConaughey.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop, directed by Steve Carr.
The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock.
The Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis.
This Side of the Truth, starring Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner.
Bride Wars, starring Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway and Candice Bergen.
 

Filmed in 2007:

21, starring Kevin Spacey.
The Women, starring Meg Ryan , Eva Mendes, Carrie Fisher and Jada Pinkett Smith.
The Lonely Maiden, with Christopher Walken, Morgan Freeman and Marcia Gay-Harden.
The Great Debaters, directed by Denzel Washington.
The Game Plan, starring Dwayne Johnson and Kyra Sedgewick.
The Box, starring Cameron Diaz.
Real Men Cry, with Donnie Wahlberg and Ethan Hawke.
Pink Panther Deux, starring Steve Martin.
My Best Friend’s Girl (Bachelor #2), with Kate Hudson and Alec Baldwin.
Gone Baby Gone, directed by Ben Affleck.
Chatham, starring Mariel Hemingway, Bruce Dern and David Carradine.

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Posted by Pam on July 1st, 2008 in real estate market

Traditionally, people don’t come to Boston to retire. Instead they move to cities like Miami, Phoenix or even Las Vegas where they can gamble, play golf and lie on the beach. And besides, the cost of living is lower in many of these places while the weather is certainly warmer.

But will a national housing slump and the simultaneous sharp increase in gas prices, change the old retirement pattern?

According to a recent New York Times article, migration to places like Florida has slowed dramatically in the last year. William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution says he believes that baby boomers will further affect migration patterns, settling in a wider range of places as they retire than previous generations of retirees.

“It will be a much more varied group of destinations — they’re going to sprinkle out all over the place,” Mr. Frey said. 

 Boston may look particularly good to retirees who are interested in arts, culture and living in an urban, walkable environment. That combination of characteristics is not easy to find in many parts of the country. As well, retirees may also find:
1) Properties are more affordable in Boston than they used to be. Priced out of Boston previously, retirees can now find good deals in the city, especially since they don’t have to worry about living in a good school district. Cambridge may be particularly attractive to this group, as well as Somerville, the South End, and parts of downtown Boston.
2) Boston’s dense urban streetscape and subway means that life can be lived without a car. This can mean substantial savings considering rising gas prices, and the cost of owning, insuring and maintaining a car. Aging retirees also don’t have to worry about how they’ll get around when it’s time to relinquish the driver’s license.
3) Boston’s housing stock of generally smaller homes and condos reduces the overall cost of maintaining a home.
4) While heating costs may be higher than Phoenix, Miami or Las Vegas (and after all, heat is necessary in some of these places in the winter, anyway) air-conditioning costs can be dramatically reduced or eliminated altogether.
5) Retirees who plan to work in retirement (according to the AARP, increasing numbers of seniors are planning to do just that) can find more satisfying and varied job opportunities than in places oriented strictly around leisure activities alone.

Anecdotally, one retiree I know chose to retire in Boston after a working life spent in Pittsburgh, precisely because she sought out a city that would keep her intellectually and culturally stimulated. She spends her days taking classes, attending lectures and nurturing a budding art career.

Not a bad way to spend a retirement.

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