East Boston has always been a pretty popular place for immigrants and lower-income people.

Over the past several years, as the national real estate market took off, the neighborhood began attracting developers looking to build and sell higher-priced condominiums and single-family homes.

To a certain extent, they found success.

Developers of Porter 156, a condominium project next to Logan Airport and near the entrance to the Callahan and Sumner tunnels, were able to sell their properties for unheard of prices, from the mid-$200,000's into the mid-$400,000's, and higher.

Alas, as the market cooled, small-time developers who bought too high (or too late) were stuck with properties they couldn't fix-up and flip.

The story was covered in today's Globe:

In 2006, the real estate market statewide softened. As extreme as it was during the boom, East Boston's condo market was way out front during the bust: Sales here fell 30 percent in 2006, compared to a 10 percent decline citywide. And so far this year, condo sales in East Boston are down nearly 18 percent, but are flat citywide.

Meanwhile, big developers who once envisioned hundreds of luxury condo units on the East Boston waterfront either pulled-back or canceled their projects, outright.

Earlier this year, work on the massive East Pier, a 550-unit luxury condominium and apartment complex, stalled just months after it began. The developers now intend to begin building an apartment building this fall, rather than the condos that were initially planned to go first.

Meanwhile, another waterfront development, Clippership Wharf, where 400 condos were proposed, is also going to be built as an apartment complex.

Ouch.

What to make of it all?

"I don't think it's considered the up-and-coming neighborhood that it was anymore," said John A. Keith, who runs the Boston Real Estate Blog ...

But he said that's a positive for people who already live in the neighborhood, because it keeps the community affordable for first-time homebuyers and immigrants.

True, that.

Source: Me

Also: Eastie's sizzle fizzles - By Kristen Green, The Boston Globe