Paul Ognibene, CEO of Urban Spaces LLC in Cambridge, has been a leader in the real-estate development front for years. Much of Paul Ognibene’s success can be attributed to him holding the business acumen and real-estate expertise to help usher in a new era of housing and business development in the greater Cambridge area. Still, Ognibene notes that much of his continued ability to keep up with demands and shifts of the real-estate industry stem from his intimate understanding of the role that location plays in establishing what housing markets prove themselves to be premier places to purchase homes and retail spaces. In this article, Paul Ognibene hopes to shed some light on factors that have kept Cambridge Massachusetts a booming real-estate market.
Proximity to Harvard and MIT: The fact that Cambridge Massachusetts is the home of esteemed universities Harvard and MIT indubitably serves as a reason that housing is so sought after in the area. The universities attract a wide variety of students, many of which require housing in the area. The universities also employ many workers and educators that similarly must find housing in, or near, the greater Cambridge metro-area
Technological Innovation Hub: In part due to Cambridge’s proximity to esteemed universities, Cambridge is seen as a hub for some of the United States’ sharpest minds and technological innovators. Specifically, Cambridge is home to many biochemists and biophysicists, attracting those interested in the industry in droves. In fact, 10.4% of workers in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton Massachusetts area work within STEM fields, compared to the US’s national average of 6.2 percent. Paul Ognibene notes that, with a median income of close to $90K, these technological innovators that need suitable living arrangements within the area and often have enough capital to traverse the competitive real-estate market
