Home Buying

The median sale price for a single-family home in Mass. was $393k in January 2020. Now it’s $600k.

Hoping for better luck in Rhode Island? Prices are climbing there, too.

By Eileen Woods

December 26, 2024

4 minutes to read

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Home prices are higher and sales have picked up in Rhode Island, a refuge for frustrated buyers in Greater Boston, where costs keep climbing and inventory has taken a nose-dive.

The Rhode Island market

Sales may be up, but inventory is not nearly enough to meet the demand, the Rhode Island Association of Realtors reported on Dec. 18. “This year, monthly sales have risen year over year for six months in contrast to falling every months from January 2022 to January of this year,” the association reported. “Inventory has increased from the prior year each month since April, which has helped spark sales.”

A healthy market has at least five months of inventory to meet the demand, but buyers are snapping up properties quickly. Single-family homes are going under contract in 32 days on average, according to the report, while condos are selling in 33. “With no new listings hitting the market, the current supply of single-family homes would be depleted in 1.9 months at the current rate of sales,” the association reported.

A lot of sellers are sitting on the sidelines, unwilling to trade their low mortgage rates for ones that may be double that. “For the most part, mortgage rates have moved between 6 and 7 percent over the last 12 months,” according to loan buyer Freddie Mac, but the average rate on a 30-year fixed stood at 6.72 percent on Dec. 18.

Hesitant buyers run the risk of home prices in Rhode Island ratcheting up while they wait for more sellers to act and mortgage rates to go lower somewhat as forecast:

But prices have not stopped their ascent:

“More inventory and increased sales are trends we desperately need on our way to a more balanced market.  However, seeing the median price [for a single-family home] climbing by double-digits in all but two months this year is still troublesome,” said Chris Witten, 2025 association president. “Affordability will not come back into line in Rhode Island until we start building more homes and creating more jobs with growth opportunities.

“Those should be key issues of concern for all Rhode Islanders as we head into the 2025 legislative session.”

It should also be a concern for all Massachusetts buyers looking to find less expensive options to the south.

The Greater Boston market

Unlike in Rhode Island, single-family home prices in Greater Boston didn’t jump by double digits in November, but it was close:

Both the condo and single-family home markets broke sales price records for the month, according to a report from the Greater Boston Association of Realtors.

Sales picked up for single-family homes in Greater Boston, but not at the pace in Rhode Island. Condo sales stayed relatively the same year over year, but a big jump in pending sales for November, a month that’s historically slow, has the market showing signs of life.

But the number of new listings may snuff out that hope:

Still, the demand is easing for condos as the temperatures dip. Condos went under contract in 31 days on average, six days longer than in November 2023. Single-family homes were snapped up in only 23 days, and even that was two days longer.

What about that supply of inventory that is so crucial to housing affordability and a healthy market?

“Inventory levels are healthier this fall than they were this time a year ago, offering buyers a larger selection of homes to choose from, but demand still exceeds supply at most price points and that’s helped to keep upward pressure on prices,” said Jared Wilk, GBAR president and a broker with the Shulkin Wilk Group at Compass in Wellesley. “Buyers also were able to take advantage of improved purchasing power during the early fall as mortgage rates and prices were lower than they were this summer, and this allowed them to bid more aggressively on properties, which also accounts for some of the appreciation in selling prices we saw in November.”

The improvement is only modest:

That imbalance between supply and demand led to the typical single-family home selling for 100 percent of its original list price, according to the report, while condos received 98.3 percent.

“There was a lot of hesitancy among buyers to make an offer over the summer, but once mortgage rates dipped below 6½ percent, many got off the fence and jumped into the market,” Wilk said. “We also saw a significant bump in new listings after the Labor Day weekend, which helped to reignite buyer interest and trigger a busy few weeks of activity early this fall.”

“Buyer demand slowed over the past two months, however, as the impending presidential election, approaching holiday season, and modest rise in mortgage rates since October caused many to become more cautious and put off their home-buying decision until next year,” he said.

The Massachusetts market

Do you remember when the median sales price of a single-family home was $393,000 in January 2020? And $399,000 for a condo? These were the median sale prices in November 2024, according to The Warren Group, a data analytics firm:

Last month’s price increase was smaller than past climbs, but both markets set records for the month, Cassidy Norton, associate publisher and media relations director of The Warren Group, said in a news release.

“The recent data suggests that mortgage rates are likely to remain relatively high, perpetuating the issue of potential sellers with lower interest rates reluctant to enter the market, contributing to the state’s supply issue,” Norton said.

But price growth is “slowing significantly” in the condo market, Norton said.

If you’re looking to buy a home in Suffolk County (home to Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop) the median sales price for a single-family home here jumped 16.2 percent to $755,000, while the cost of a condo rose 7.7 percent to $716,500 in November, according to The Warren Group.

Check out their county-by-county breakdown.

In Somerville, the median sales price for a single-family home in November was $1,160,000, an 18.3 percent drop year over year based on 85 sales. Meanwhile, the cost of a condo in that city hit $862,500, a 12.4 percent jump based on 390 sales.

Check out The Warren Group’s community-by-community breakdown.

Eileen Woods

Editor, real estate

Eileen McEleney Woods is the real estate editor for Boston.com and editor of the Boston Globe's Sunday real estate section (Address). 

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