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Tandem parking spots sell for $560,000

Two prime parking spaces behind Commonwealth Avenue sold for $560,000 at an IRS auction. Bidding for the tandem spaces started at $42,000 in the fiercely contested auction. (Colm O'Molloy for The Boston Globe) The Boston Globe

Sold for $560,000: Rarely available tandem parking spots in Back Bay. Sweeping alley views in exclusive neighborhood, just steps from high-end Newbury Street shops. Amenities include fully lined asphalt spaces, stains included. Second space ideal for growing one-car family.

In the end, it came down to a bidding war between two neighbors, who took the price of two parking spots behind 298 Commonwealth Ave. from $42,000 to more than half a million dollars — nearly double the $313,000 median sales price for a single family home in Massachusetts — in less than 15 minutes.

The neighborhood is home to the most valuable parking spots in the city. A space behind 48 Commonwealth Ave. set the record for a single spot at $300,000 in 2009. Two tandem spots a block from the Public Garden on Commonwealth Avenue sold for $200,000 last summer, and a single spot on Marlborough Street went for $250,000 in December.

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Dozens of local residents, business owners, real estate agents, and lawyers turned out Thursday afternoon for the auction at the parking spaces, which the Internal Revenue Service seized from a man who owed more than $600,000 in back taxes.

A common complaint of those in attendance: difficulty finding a place to park.

Auctioneer Tim Smith, an IRS liquidation specialist, started the bidding in a light rain shortly after noon, calling the property the “two prettiest parking spaces I’ve ever seen.’’

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