When Six Boston Homebuyers Get Brutally Honest: The Conversation That Reveals What We're Really Buying

Six Greater Boston buyers ($425K to $2.8M budgets) expose the psychological, financial, and identity-driven tensions beneath home purchase decisions. What starts as polite market segmentation discussion devolves into confrontation about class, values, and whether anyone's actually making the 'right' choice—spoiler: they're all right and all wrong simultaneously.

Any Greater Boston buyer wrestling with town selection, budget rationalization, or buyer's remorse. Especially valuable for those caught between prestige and pragmatism.

• •Margaret (Dover, $2.8M): Pays $45K annually in taxes to buy 'ecosystem' and 'continuity'—admits it's not economically defensible
• •Rick (Lynn, $425K): Refuses prestige theater, prioritizes affordability, but questions if he should have stretched for Salem
• •Priya (Needham, $1.1M): Arbitraging school quality vs. taxes, targeting 'sweet spot' 35-40min commute, school-quality obsessed
• •Emma (Somerville, $650K condo): Deliberately car-free, walks to 50 restaurants, calls suburbs 'embalmed'—but locked into rising condo fees
• •Carter (Cohasset, $1.8M): Buying 'being ON a boat,' not in a house—non-negotiable lifestyle premium
• •Jennifer (Reading/Stoneham, $725K): Stretching budget for 'not being poorest family'—actually bought Stoneham, admits 'it's fine'