$560,000 Parking Space Sets New Price Record In Boston

$560,000 for parking space in Boston’s Back Bay is the record-breaking new price for a tandem parking space that The Boston Globe called “a crumbling strip of asphalt barely big enough to fit two cars.”

Yet people gathered in the rain Thursday afternoon to bid on the tandem parking spaces sold for the eye-popping price of $560,000 in yesterday’s IRS auction.

The new price makes Swiss cheese of the old record price for a parking lot in Boston. A nearby spot sold in 2009 for $300,000 for a single space. Ouch.

Weren’t we in a recession in 2009? Apparently not in Boston’s Back Bay.

IRS liquidation specialist Tim Smith opened the bidding for $42,000 shortly after noon. In less than 15 minutes, the bidding escalated to the final closing price of $560,000.

And the sad part is, the tandem parking space was seized by the IRS from a man who owed more than $600,000 in federal taxes. So my guess is that poor guy still owes them money. Ouch again.

The rarity of parking spots in the desirable neighborhood prompted a local real estate agent Ken Tutnjian to describe the space as “a diamond that comes to auction that you’ve never seen before.” CBS Boston talked to a bidder who had to drop out at $130,000. She didn’t even get close.

Needless to say, if you’ve paid big money for a parking space, you also need a police officer or a security guard on your team to keep poachers from parking there. Maybe you might even be interested in a new parking snitch app being developed to allow people to report illegal parking for a cut of a fine.

To me, it seems like a wicked waste of money, but I admittedly live in the south where the parking is easy. If you had the money, would you pay $560,000 for a parking space?

[parking sign photo by S. Jones via Flickr and Creative Commons]