Home Buying

Which towns have seen the biggest price gains since the last real estate boom?

Houses on Sherman Street in Cambridge on June 10, 2016. Jim Tuttle

June 24, 2016

2 minutes to read

The Boston area’s most expensive suburbs and neighborhoods have also experienced some of biggest price gains over the past decade, real estate stats show.

Cambridge, Brookline, Wellesley, Jamaica Plain, Lexington, Winchester, Newton and Needham have led the pack, shattering price records last set during the last real estate boom in the mid-2000s, according to the Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.

Driving prices up in these upscale towns is a steady flow of highly paid talent drawn to the Boston-area’s high-tech and biotech clusters combined with a shortage of homes for sale.

“For three or four years now I have been waiting for this buyer demand to fall off, but it just seems to be very steady,” said Michael Cohen, a broker with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Needham,

Cambridge has seen the biggest gains over the past decade, with its median home price nearly doubling to just shy of $1.7 million as of the end of April, Warren Group stats show.

That’s up from $847,500 back in April 2005 during the peak of the last real estate boom.

While that’s hard to match, other elite zip codes have also posted stunning gains, shattering price records set during the mid-2000s.

While Brookline’s median price fell short of doubling, it has come close, rising to $1.6 million at the end of April. That’s up from $980,000 in April, 2005.

Charlestown and Manchester saw even steeper increases, though given the small number of home sales in both communities, the median is more easily skewed by a few big sales.

Up on Cape Ann, Manchester’s median price of $1.3 million so far this year is a big jump from last April’s $715,000, and definitely up from $544,000 a decade ago. Still, just five homes were sold during the first four months of 2016.

Charlestown’s median has blown past the $1.1 million mark. Back in 2005 it was $537,500. Still, it’s a number based on just 19 sales this year, with the median price in April 2015 an impressive but less lofty $789,000 according to The Warren Group.

Though they didn’t double their prices, other upscale towns posted big gains as well.

Jamaica Plain’s median price rose by more than 40 percent, hitting $715,000, up from $482,500 more than a decade ago.

Lexington’s median price, at $965,000, is now homing in on the $1 million mark, compared to $690,000 a decade ago.

Newton’s median price is now over $1.1 million, up from $750,000 a decade ago, while Winchester’s has reached $908,000, 30 percent over its last peak, Warren Group stats show.

And Wellesley home prices are up roughly 50 percent from a decade ago, closing in on $1.3 million.

With low interest rates and buyers still on the hunt, there are no signs of an imminent downturn, though the pace of price increases has cooled a bit over the past few months.

Still, nothing lasts forever, and no town, neighborhood or city is guaranteed steadily rising prices, year after year after year, Cohen noted.

“As the old saying goes, what goes up, must come down,” Cohen said.