The Wall Street Journal - 06.03.2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, March 6, 2020 |M1

choice of a close-in suburb with a

short commute, willingness to

trade size and space for a walk-

able area, and rejection of tradi-

tional sleepy suburban landscapes

are classics of their age cohort.

The only way in which they differ:

Their brown-shingled house

needed a small amount of renova-

tion, they said, something many of

their contemporaries abhor. These

generational habits are so perva-

sive that they are anointing new

areas as ultraluxury spots and

sending some previously desirable

locations into a downward price

spiral.

This group’s preference for

move-in-ready homes is also shift-

ing the burden of fixing up older

homes onto sellers, and giving

rise to new business models for

real-estate brokerages and home

builders.

Unlike members of their gener-

ation who can’t buy houses be-

cause of student debt and slow-

to-build careers, some do have the

Please turn to page M8

MANSION

Love for Paint

Larry Poons

remembers the

girl that inspired

his art.M14

$8.5 Million

Estate owned by

former Goldman

co-chair lists.

M16

HOMES|MARKETS|PEOPLE|REDOS|SALES

The Secret

In Boston’s

Basement

Rotted pilings left a legacy of

hidden threats to the priciest

real estate in this red-hot market

IN 2011,developer Koby Kempel

paid $2.5 million for a red brick,

former carriage house in Boston’s

coveted Beacon Hill, one of the pric-

iest neighborhoods in the country.

Famed for its cobblestone streets

and historic row houses, Beacon Hill

has been home to former Secretary

of State John Kerry and many other

notable Bostonians over the years.

When Mr. Kempel bought the

circa-1900 house on Beaver Place,

Please turn to page M12

BYCANDACETAYLOR

The Rise of the New Urbanists

Younger luxury buyers prefer move-in ready homes in walkable locations, desire parks over big yards and love the color gray

W

hen Reny Huel-

skamp, 34, and

her husband

Paul Huelskamp,

36, decided to

move out of their San Francisco

rental and buy their first home,

they were drawn to Mill Valley,

Calif., about 20 minutes from San

Francisco. In May, they closed on

a $2 million, roughly 2,000-

square-foot house with a pool

about a block from a lively town

square.

“If you grab coffee at the coffee

spot downtown, there’s a palpable

sense of community,” said Mr.

Huelskamp, a developer of solar

and wind power plants. “You’ll see

tons of young families, with their

kids and dogs.”

The Huelskamps didn’t set out

to be poster children for Wealthy

Millennial Home Buyers, but in

fact their choices nearly perfectly

represent what agents say are the

trends for this age group. Their

BYKATYMCLAUGHLIN

ALANNA HALE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (3)

$2

MILLION

2,000 sq. ft,

a block from Mill

Valley’s lively town

square

Reny and Paul Huelskamp, right, in their Mill Valley, Calif., home. They left a rental in San Francisco to buy their first home in a suburb with a sense of place that was near the city.

TONY LUONG FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Goethe-Institut Boston recently repaired its pilings. It is surrounded by private residences.

Goethe-Institut

on Beacon Street