As a follow up to the statewide and greater Boston market data releases, I was curious to see what was really going on neighborhood to neighborhood in Boston. As you'll see below, it's very interesting. As I have pointed out many times, there is so much variation from location to location even within one city. And the downtown Boston market is very different from the statewide and national markets.
The data below take the 2008 condo sales year to date (Jan 1, 2008 to today) and compare it to the 2007 condo sales (Jan 1, 2007 to Sept 26, 2007). This is interesting because we are looking at basically the 1st 3 quarters of data from both years instead of the typical month over month data you see. Bigger sample of data. Better information.
I will be adding more data, more neighborhoods, more analysis over time to this and also try to put out a market report on a regular basis, simply because good, LOCAL market information is almost impossible to find in the press. Check back in.....
Anyway - here you go:
| BACK BAY |
2007 | 2008 | % Change |
Units Sold |
358 |
328 |
-8.4% |
| Median Price |
$604,000 |
$630,000 | 4.3% |
| Days on Market | 107 |
102 |
-4.7% |
| Volume | $307,717,000 |
$307,953,000 |
0.1% |
| SOUTH END |
2007 | 2008 | % Change |
Units Sold |
482 |
474 |
-1.7% |
| Median Price |
$550,000 |
$560,000 | 1.8% |
| Days on Market | 102 | 93 |
-8.8% |
| Volume | $292,492,000 |
$307,157,000 |
5.0% |
| NORTH END |
2007 | 2008 | % Change |
Units Sold |
75 |
56 |
-25.3% |
| Median Price |
$417,000 |
$319,000 | -23.5% |
| Days on Market | 172 | 113 | -34.3% |
| Volume | $36,119,000 |
$22,656,000 |
-37.3% |
| BEACON HILL |
2007 | 2008 | % Change |
Units Sold |
124 |
143 |
15.3% |
| Median Price |
$499,500 |
$479,000 | -4.1% |
| Days on Market | 88 |
120 |
36.4% |
| Volume | $86,584,000 |
$96,280,000 |
11.2% |
What happened to the North End?? Not getting any love this year....ouch!
Overall in this sample of "core" Boston neighborhoods, the market looks pretty stable - other than the North End (which is a smaller segment of the overall market). There are some fluctuations up or down in terms of units sold and median price, but it is relatively moderate and they offset each other in each neighborhood. Total volume (which is the total dollar value of all the units sold) is up in the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and the South End. All the doom and gloom of this huge housing "decline" has not really come to pass (or at least not as much) in core Boston neighborhoods. But the variation is fascinating and it makes me want to look at other neighborhoods and towns in more detail this way.
By the way, I also guessing the large North End decline has more to do with a big variation in the type of inventory sold rather than a decline in values for like kind property from 2007 to 2008. There was more higher end product (new development) on the market and sold in 2007 which accounts for some (but not all) of the decline there.
I should have more neighborhoods posted soon...