Boston woman pays $560,000 for 2 parking spots

Michael Dwyer / AP

Parking spaces behind 298 Commonwealth Ave. in Boston are seen Friday, June 14, 2013. The two open spaces at right, front and back, were sold at auction on Thursday for $560,000.

Associated Press

Friday, June 14, 2013 | 10:09 a.m.

BOSTON — Parking is such a precious commodity in Boston that one woman was willing to pay $560,000 for two off-street spaces near her home.

Lisa Blumenthal won the spots in the city's Back Bay neighborhood during an on-site auction Thursday held in a steady rain by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS had seized the spots from a man who owed back taxes.

Blumenthal, who lives in a multimillion-dollar home near the parking spaces, tells The Boston Globe she didn't expect the bidding to go quite so high for the spots she says will come in handy for guests and workers.

The record for a single spot in Boston is $300,000.

The median price of a single-family home in Massachusetts is $313,000.