It appears as though the city of Boston, and in
particular, the more high-end condominiums, are doing far better in
terms of average prices than they have in recent memory. We have
been quite optimistic about the direction our real estate market is
heading in as we go on into this new year, although the results are
not consistent state-wide. In Massachusetts, there is evidence from
the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) that shows how some of the more
affluent towns and neighborhoods are thriving while the more
moderately priced homes that make up the majority of other towns
are in a bit of a struggle of sorts.
For single-family homes and condominiums, the total volume of
sales from 2010 to 2011 had dropped by 3 percent for the entire
state. In addition, the price for such homes also decreased by an
average of 2 percent from $289,000 in 2010 to $284,000 for the past
year. Boston has performed well
though with an improvement of 3.3 percent in condominium sales over
the fourth quarter in 2010 compared to the same quarter in the past
year. These results brought forth 758 property sales during the
period.
There was a 1 percent decline in sales volume in Boston over the past year
compared to that of 2010. This showed great stability as well
allowing for rising median prices for homes and condominiums which
increased by 2.1 percent to $375,000. Furthermore, there were also
improvements in the average sale prices for these type of
properties, which compared to 2010 rose by 4.5 percent to $544,475.
A great cause for this is the higher-end homes which were strong in
demand and helped pull up some of these numbers. For example, the
most expensive condominium in the past fourth quarter of 2011 sold
for $6 million at InterContinental at the Boston Waterfront.
It can be inferred that the shortage of available land for
building new units that has caused the price increases in the city
as demand continued to rise. It seems as though when there is new
construction it has flown off the market and sold immediately. This
can be compared to the average days on market for Boston and state-wide which
rose only by a few days for each to 103 and 133, respectively. This
has shown the recent stability and generally slow rate of new
construction. We will see if these trends continue in a years
time!
More Information: Boston Herald