These Parking Spots for Sale Are More Expensive Than Condos

Photo via Charles Street Garage

Boston’s most exclusive neighborhoods are also, unsurprisingly, its most expensive. So, it’s not a shock to learn that parking spots in places like Beacon Hill and Back Bay fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Take this highly coveted spot in Beacon Hill’s Charles Street Garage: it commands $350,000, and comes with all the bells and whistles. For one, there’s valet service, as well as text-ahead vehicle request, car detailing, maintenance coordination, and a “modern drivers’ lounge.” Still, $350,000 exceeds the price of a single-family home outside the city, which is precisely why real estate analytics firm NeighborhoodX scoured listings to find homes in Boston asking less than parking spots for sale in the city.

As it turns out, there are plenty of pricey parking spaces in Boston—and a bunch of condos that are cheaper than them.

“When you buy a parking spot, you generally need to pay cash for it, since it can’t be financed with a conventional residential mortgage,” explains Constantine Valhouli, director of research at NeighborhoodX. “And, as an owner, you still have to pay taxes and a monthly fee for the spot that you own. Whereas renting a space typically doesn’t exceed, say, $400 a month.”

With that in mind, Valhouli set out to see if you could buy an inexpensive condo, rent it out, and use that rental income to lease a fancy parking spot instead. The short answer? Yes, yes you can.

NeighborhoodX identified the least expensive property in Boston as a two-bedroom condo in Hyde Park asking $129,000. According to the report, the condo is rented for $14,500 per year, or about $1,200 per month. With annual taxes of $1,272 per year (or approximately $100 per month) and a monthly condo fee of $290, renting the condo would result in a monthly net revenue of $800 per month ($1,200 minus about $390 per month).

“By buying this condo for $129,000 instead of a parking space for $350,000, you could lease two spaces per month on the rental income,” Valhouli says. Plus, the Hyde Park condo comes with an off-street parking space.

Interested in putting this theory to the test? Check out the full chart of condos cheaper than parking spots below, and see a list of parking spots for sale here.