There are some disadvantages of Boston high rise luxury living

Almost all Boston Downtown residents live in high-rises luxury condos. It’s rare to impossible to find a townhouse in the Midtown section of Boston. So in today’s Boston luxury condo blog post I’m going to share with you some of the negative aspects of Boston high rise condo living. I know, as a Boston luxury condo broker I should emphasis the positive, which I’ve done many times before.

So lets begin.

Shared-wall downtown buildings mean noise.

Older buildings don’t have good noise insulation, so you’ll hear the neighbor’s when they watch movies, hear the clinking glasses when they have parties, and hear the kids running around above you. But even in brand-new, well-insulated buildings, you’re still likely to hear noise from the street outside. Even in higher floors you can still hear the trains and sirens pretty clearly.

That’s great because you don’t have to worry about mowing grass, picking up leaves, landscaping, or shoveling snow in the winter. That’s not-so-great for dog owners – your dog ends up doing its business on small patches of grass that are heavily trafficked by other dogs. You start to look at dog feet a little differently.

Downtown high-rise residents and parking.

You park your car on the garage floor of the building, and then take an elevator (or a couple of elevators) to get into your apartment. In some buildings, shopping carts are available for you to bring your stuff from the car up to your place, but that’s fairly rare.

You don’t have your own front door to the street.

Home dwellers are used to just ordering big items like furniture or TVs, and the delivery guys can show up at any time. Not so in downtown – deliveries have to be arranged ahead of time in specific time windows. You may also have to reserve the loading dock and the freight elevator ahead of time because deliveries aren’t allowed through the front door of the building and the regular (fancy) elevators.

Moving, in particular, can be a pain in the butt. You have to schedule everything in advance. If you’re moving between high-rises, you have to coordinate elevator access in both buildings at the right times. Your reservation isn’t for the whole day, either – typically only 3-4 hour windows, like 9AM-noon – because other people need the elevators to.