Pair Of Back Bay Parking Spaces Sold For $560,000 At Auction
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's exclusive Back Bay real estate: two rare tandem parking spaces behind a building on Commonwealth Avenue.
There's lined asphalt and an alley view, and it sold at auction for $560,000.
"It's like a diamond that comes to auction that you've never seen before, it's a gem," realtor Ken Tutunjian told WBZ-TV.
With too many cars and too few parking spaces in the wealthy Boston neighborhood, these spaces were highly coveted and the subject of a bidding war that started at $42,000. The spaces were sold at auction by the Internal Revenue Service, which is using the proceeds to pay delinquent taxes from the previous owner.
"I came in with a strategy to jump out of the box right away and start bidding. I was totally outbid," said Betsy James, who was willing to go as high as $130,000.
James said the convenience right outside her building would have made the purchase worth it, but she couldn't match the price that came in. "I was looking at the faces around me, and people were astounded," she said.
The sale-price record for a single parking spot in Boston is $300,000 but this could be a new record for tandem spaces.
Back Bay resident Mike Adams, who owns a space in a garage, says hunting for parking is a frustrating exercise in Boston. "Parking in the city is tough. When friends visit, we have to find them a space in a garage and the timing has to be right," he said.
But Adams said no level of hassle makes more than a half million dollars for parking worth it. "That's outrageous," he said.
