About Boston's Dorchester

Dorchester is the largest neighborhood in Boston Massachusetts. It is the most diverse and has over 90,000 residents. If you are looking to purchase a home in the City, you will get the most "bang for your buck" in Dorchester. Simply put, you get more space for less money compared to other parts of the City. If you want a personal tour of Dorchester,Contact me or any member of my team at Boston Trust Realty Group. 617-674-2077. http://BTRealtyGroup.com

While the recent negative headlines talk about home sales still being flat and going down in some places, Dorchester has always been one of the areas to come back first! The numbers from 2010 vs. 2009 prove it!

The average selling price for a three-family in Dorchester for 2010 was $298,810, compared to $249,860, a 20% increase! The numbers for the change in a median sales price were a little bit higher as well.

Another great sign that prices are on the way back up is the number of homes sold above $400,000. There were 22 in 2010 vs. only 12 in 2009, an 83% increase! Available listings are also very low, averaging under 30 for last few months. This will only increase the demand!

Please let me know if you would like more information about local prices or are interested in the value of your home or are in the market for a three-family for sale in Dorchester.

Three families for sale in Dorchester vs. those available in Brockton. A client recently asked me about the three-family opportunities that were on the market in both Dorchester (and all of Boston for that matter) and in Brockton. I told him that there were pros and cons to each. The biggest one is the distance. He is a Boston guy and if he wanted to manage these properties himself, I told him, he would have to take travel into consideration.

There's also the numbers factor. The prices are generally lower in Brockton than in Dorchester, but the rents are lower as well. There are more jobs in Boston, better access to public transportation and schools. I decided to create a spreadsheet for him to crunch the numbers and decide for himself. The first version was an "as-is" look based solely on what MLS gave us. I did make adjustments for incorrect or missing real estate taxes. I did not take into consideration any work that needed to be done to get the home into rent-able condition, if needed. I took 15% off total rents for expenses (not including taxes, which I factored in first).

As you can see there are a couple in Brockton that crack 20% in ROI compared to the 5 in Boston. The second spreadsheet shows where I have plugged in estimated rents for homes that had vacancies (seen in blue).

As you can see, the potential is much greater after this exercise, with 24 three-families returning 20% or higher. Nine are from Brockton and the rest are from Boston. More analysis will need to be done in order to accurately predict which homes have the best potential, but this is a reasonable starting point. Let me know if you would like the full spreadsheet that shows the number of rooms, bedrooms and rents for each unit. I'm always happy to assist any investors out there who prefer like-minded real estate professionals working with them.

As a Dorchester native and business owner, it is important to stay on top of the latest news and current events in and around the city. As a result, I have recently launched DotNewsLive.com. DotNewsLive provides the latest information on people, places and events in Dorchester. For those of you that don't know, many of the locals refer to Dorchester as DOT for short (hence the name DotNewsLive). Dorchester is the largest section in the City of Boston and it is important that there is a source for the day to day happenings in and around the community. DotNewsLive features everything you need to know about Dorchester and then some, but don't take my word for it. Take a look at that site and see for yourself. DotNewsLive aims to celebrate all of the great events, people and places Dorchester has to offer!