Be prepared to spend a good amount of money (up to a whopping $750,000) just to park in a posh Boston neighborhood.
Beacon Hill, an elite 105-acre neighborhood in downtown Boston, has some of the most exclusive parking options in the country.
The Brimmer Street Garage, located at 70 Brimmer St. in Beacon Hill, features coveted parking spaces that regularly sell for half a million dollars. Eager buyers often pay for their spaces entirely in cash, given the million-dollar homes in the area.
“If you’re buying a home at that level, adding $500,000 for that parking convenience really isn’t that surprising,” said real estate agent Betsy Herald.
Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood has some of the most unique parking options in the country. At Brimmer Street Garage, parking spaces regularly sell for $500,000
The Brimmer Street Garage, former home of horses and trainers, currently has no parking spaces available. There is a waiting list for those desperate to get a spot.
Because parking in the historic neighborhood is extremely limited, wealthy locals are willing to spend large sums of money for convenience.
Although it is difficult to track the sale of parking spaces (they are often tied to condo or home sales), when sold separately, parking spaces sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Boston real estate agents have said high parking prices are symptomatic of the city’s expensive and attractive real estate market.
In Beacon Hill, the median listing price for a home is $4.3 million, and about four in five properties are listed for $1 million or more. Former Secretary of State and presidential candidate John Kerry is just one of the neighborhood’s prominent residents.
Of a parking space, Herald said, “you have to look at it as a piece of land.”
The real estate agent told the Boston Globe that “if you take that parking space and multiply it by 20, you have developable land in Boston, which is worth a significant amount of money.”
In 1979, a garage space cost $7,500. They now sell for more than $500,000.
Rising parking prices are seen as a corollary of Boston’s booming real estate market. As property values continue to appreciate, so do parking space values.
Brimmer Street Garage, once a humble horse and buggy garage, bills itself as “Beacon Hill’s most unique place to snag a parking space.”
Garage spaces are sold privately and their owners must pay association dues and property taxes on the parking spaces.
In addition to the parking space, owners of a space at the Brimmer Street Garage also enjoy 24-hour valet service and, if they wish, can have their extravagant cars detailed, cleaned and refueled.
In 1979, seats at the Brimmer Street Garage cost $7,500. Now they can reach more than $500,000 and there is a waiting list to buy a place.
Beacon Hill has some of the most expensive parking in Boston. This is because properties in the area are very expensive and available parking is limited.
One real estate agent rationalized the exorbitant parking prices this way: “If you take that parking space and multiply it by 20, you have developable land in Boston, which is worth a significant amount of money.”
Herald said the garage allows the ultra-rich to fulfill their dreams.
“The garage becomes the option for them to realize life in their dream neighborhood and their dream home in Beacon Hill.”
In Boston, expensive parking isn’t limited to Beacon Hill. On the outskirts of Back Bay, a couple received a surprising offer of $750,000 for their parking space in 2022.
Last year, a simple open-air parking space in a Back Bay alley generated $250,000.
With parking space prices skyrocketing, some real estate agents consider purchasing one a prudent investment. As property values continue to appreciate, so should the value of parking spaces.
Beth Dickerson, real estate agent with Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty, told Boston Globe that a Back Bay parking spot he’s selling for $350,000 sold for $275,000 just seven years ago.
Real estate agents said Boston’s wealthiest are willing to shell out huge sums of money on parking because they are already paying a high price for their homes.
Herald recalled a time two decades ago when a parking space behind Newbury Street was selling for $15,000. That same place is now worth an estimated $400,000.
Herald recalled a phone call he had with his sister, a real estate agent in Portland, Oregon.
His sister told him that she had just sold a beautiful little house overlooking the river for half a million.
Herald responded: “Actually, I just sold a parking space for $500,000.”