Usually affordable neighborhoods hit with big price increases
Ironically, it is their very reputation for affordability that may be helping drive up home prices in neighborhoods line Mattapan, Dorchester, East Boston and Roxbury.
Some of Boston’s most affordable neighborhoods are now seeing some of the biggest price increases.
Single-family home prices in East Boston, Dorchester, and Mattapan have posted double-digit gains in 2015 compared to last year, while home prices in Roxbury are up by a none-too shabby 7 percent, according to The Warren Group, the Boston-based real estate publisher and data firm.
And home prices in all four neighborhoods have now surpassed their previous peaks, set back in 2005 at the bubbly height of the last real estate boom.
Trickle down
Ironically, it is their very reputation for affordability that may be helping drive up prices in these neighborhoods, with a wide array of buyers looking for alternatives to other more expensive zip codes in Boston and across the Charles.
“They have really bounced back quite a bit,’’ said Marlea Mesh, a broker at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage’s Milton office and a long-time resident of Savin Hill in Dorchester.
In fact, Coldwell Banker’s Mesh is starting to see multiple offers on some homes.
A single-family in Savin Hill recently fetched $469,000 after getting offers from three different buyers.
Mesh is seeing buyers priced out of Somerville attracted to Dorchester by the chance to buy a larger and more affordable homes.
Story continues after gallery.
The neighborhoods where homes sold the fastest at the end of this summer:
The numbers
Savin Hill and Ashmont are the hottest parts of Dorchester right now. Anything within a five minute walk of a T or commuter rail station is pretty hot as well.
But increased interest from buyers is also helping push up prices as well.
The median price of a single-family home in Dorchester is now closing in on $400,000, well above where it was in the peak year of 2005, when the median was $370,000, Warren Group stats show.
The median price of a home in neighboring Mattapan has shot up 27 percent so far this year, hitting $331,950, about $8,000 above 2005’s median price.
“I came here in the 1980s because I couldn’t afford Cambridge and Somerville,’’ Mesh said. “I am seeing a similar trend now. They (buyers) realize they might get a little more for their money when they pay what becomes the top price. That is driving prices up.’’
Mattapan condo prices have risen even more dramatically, hitting the $400,000 mark compared to the median price in 2005 of $219,000.
East Boston has also seen some major gains, with the median price of a single-family home passing $382,000 after a 15 percent increase this year. Back in 2005, the median was $323,000.
Eastie’s median condo price is now $335,000, compared to $225,000 in 2005.
Still, there is a silver lining to the rising prices for some homeowners in Boston’s traditionally affordable neighborhoods.
While rising prices are always tough for first-time buyers, they have provided a major boost to homeowners who bought at the peak a decade ago and then found themselves under water when prices fell.
“Now the prices are high enough they can walk away from their debt and maybe walk away with a little bit left over,’’ Mesh said.
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