Home Buying

2024 condo market recap: The city was hot, but not as hot as the suburbs

Which neighborhoods were in demand? Where did units sell faster, and what prices were they getting per square foot?

In 2024, Charlestown commanded $895 per square foot. That's a jump of 7.3 percent year over year. In Roxbury, the price per square foot was $636, a whopping 52.8 percent increase thanks to new developments. Adobe Stock

By Eileen Woods

January 17, 2025

3 minutes to read

It’s Luxury in the City week for our real estate coverage, and while all eyes are on the stunning properties that entails (and the envy those listings generate), we are reminded that condos and rentals are the lifeblood of the Boston real estate market.

And how did the city’s condo market fare in 2024? We asked Nick Warren, founder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Warren Residential.

Most sales went for slightly under the asking price, inventory is up, and the demand is still there, according to Warren.

But the suburbs are hotter. “Some neighborhoods are seeing a trend upward, but not as aggressive as the suburbs are,” Warren said.

“The city definitely has been affected over the last 24 months or so, more so than the suburbs, which are still cooking,” he said, noting that Boston agents are finding that some buyers skipped their first condo in the city, saved up for two years, and went to the suburbs.

Blame COVID and remote work. The latter has decimated the city’s office holdings.

People want more space and “more bang for their buck,” Warren said. “COVID has a lot to do with the city not being as attractive as it once was … but the excitement of the city is back.”

Which neighborhoods have hot condo markets? There’s the “blue-chip” neighborhoods, of course: the Back Bay, South End, Beacon Hill, and the Seaport, he said. “Charlestown is still hot. Things are moving quickly there. South Boston is still popular. There’s a lot of demand for Back Bay high-rises.”

Warren Residential released its condo market report for 2024 last week, and while the average sale price is a standard criterion we often use to measure the market, it’s fascinating to look at how long it takes listings to sell and the average sales price versus the list price. The latter answers the question: Are sellers getting what they are asking for? Sure, it’s subject to the skills of the listing agent — did the agent price the property well from the very beginning, and were there price drops? — but every criterion you see in these reports is affected by something. That median sales price? If you have only 10 sales, one buy can have a dramatic affect on the final tally. Days on market? If you have a lot of inventory, you have less competition for the listings, so it may take them longer to sell.

A deep-dive into the days on market and average sale price versus list price datasets finds properties in Charlestown, Roslindale, Mattapan, and Jamaica Plain in high demand. Properties in Charlestown garnered 101.55 percent of their list price on average and sold 7 days faster than they did in 2023.

Here’s the breakdown by neighborhood:

NEIGHBORHOOD	DAYS ON MARKET	Q4 2023 TO 2024 CHANGE	SALES PRICE VS. LIST PRICE	2023-2024 CHANGE
Boston	51	+3 days	98.46%	0.1%
Allston	37	-7 days	99.7%	-0.1%
Back Bay	68	+4 days	96.82%	0.9%
Bay Village	60	-33 days	97.55%	0.2%
Beacon Hill	50	-14 days	97.96%	1.1%
Brighton	44	+11 days	99.54%	-0.8%
Charlestown	28	-7 days	101.55%	1.5%
Dorchester	47	+6 days	99.29%	-0.8%
Downtown	93	+24 days	97.39%	-0.5%
East Boston	64	+13 days	99.47%	0.3%
Fenway/Kenmore	47	+6 days	98.74%	-0.6%
Jamaica Plain	38	-2 days	101.62%	0.2%
Mattapan	44	-1 day	102.09%	1.7%
Mission Hill	40	+16 days	99.3%	4.3%
North End	52	+3 days	98.53%	0.2%
Roslindale	34	+3 days	102.49%	1.5%
Roxbury	55	-19 days	99.17%	1.3%
Seaport	81	+12 days	97.43%	-0.7%
South Boston	50	+4 days	97.91%	-0.5%
South End	50	+6 days	99.07%	0.1%
Waterfront	75	+6 days	96.6%	-0.1%
West End	77	-54 days	98.95%	1.4%
West Roxbury	37	+1 day	99.37%	-0.2%

Source: Warren Residential

The number of condo listings is up 7.3 percent overall in the city, according to the report. This is despite the “mortgage rate lock” that has kept many sellers, on the sidelines, unwilling to trade loans with rates in the threes for ones in the sevens. “There are a lot of people who want to sell, but it would be financially irresponsible if they do,” Warren said, but “some people have reached the point of needing to sell.”

And despite experiencing a net loss of nearly 55,000 residents to other states, the housing demand in the city is still there — in some neighborhoods more than others.

“At the end of the day, Massachusetts is still a very attractive state,” Warren said, noting Boston’s “top-notch” educational and health care systems, “things people aren’t willing to compromise on.”

Here’s what people are willing to pay per square foot in each neighborhood:

NEIGHBORHOOD	PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT	Q4 2023 TO 2024 CHANGE
Boston	$923	2.9%
Allston	$711	-11.8%
Back Bay	$1,536	-1.8%
Bay Village	$1,214	7.8%
Beacon Hill	$1,345	6.6%
Brighton	$775	-10.2%
Charlestown	$895	7.3%
Dorchester	$524	2.8%
Downtown	$1,413	-3.6%
East Boston	$696	9.1%
Fenway/Kenmore	$1,098	8.4%
Jamaica Plain	$652	5.8%
Mattapan	$346	-15.4%
Mission Hill	$702	19.2%
North End	$1,034	4.7%
Roslindale	$533	4.1%
Roxbury	$636	52.8%
Seaport	$1,738	1.3%
South Boston	$806	1.4%
South End	$1,132	0.4%
Waterfront	$1,097	-3.3%
West End	$631	-5.6%
West Roxbury	$563	3.1%

Source: Warren Residential

Despite the city’s incentives to building affordable housing, developers have been focusing on rentals and luxury condos, Warren said. “Massachusetts has a lot of red tape when it comes to development, and we don’t have the tracks of land. It takes years, sometimes a decade, to get these projects approved. I think it will always be an issue.”

“In order to make a profit, you can’t sell it for middle-income people. If the development process were simplified and quicker … we would see prices sort of level out and even come down.”