Greater Boston home buyer hot spots
Real estate experts reveal the cities and towns where house hunters are setting their sights.
There aren’t enough homes in Boston for everyone who wants to live here. So where are home buyers going? We asked agents in which communities buyers are most clamoring to purchase a single-family home.
Joselin Malkhasian of Lamacchia Realty works with a lot of out-of-state buyers and has noticed a clear trend among them. When she asks what towns they think they’d be interested in, the answer is very often Lexington, Newton, and Weston.
“Those are the three that always get mentioned,” she said. “Take Lexington for example. There are 26 single-family homes for sale in Lexington today. The lowest-priced home is asking $1.8 million. It’s very rare that there’s going to be something below $1 million in Lexington, but even if you get something between $1 million and $1.5 million, it will probably only last on the market for a weekend. It is going to be a frenzy with 50 buyers at the open house. Newton and Weston are even more expensive.”
The median sales price for a Lexington home was $2.9 million in February, according to The Warren Group, which tracks real estate data in the state. Newton was $1.8 million and Weston $1.5 million.
Malkhasian also said in this post-COVID era, Hyde Park ($600,000) and West Roxbury ($825,000) are popular places for buyers who want something closer to the city, but wish to have a backyard.
Dave Twombly is the principal broker/owner of 4Buyers Real Estate. He said regardless of what is happening in the economy, Cambridge — where 14 homes sold in February at a median price of close to $2.5 million — is always a draw for those who can afford to live there.
“In the dead of last winter, I had clients in my neighborhood make an offer on a single-family home for close to $300,000 over asking, and they got beat out by another buyer because it was a single-family house in Cambridge,” he said.
Many Cambridge buyers are committed to living in that city and will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to buy a home there. Other communities just aren’t like that, he said.
And the surge of the spring house hunt hasn’t even begun yet.
North of Boston
Malkhasian said Melrose ($771,000) is a very hot community. It’s got proximity to Boston, commuter rail, good schools, and a low crime rate. But on the day she spoke to the Globe, there were only four single-family homes for sale.
“The communities where inventory [are] very low is where you’re going to see the crazy bidding wars and the waiving of all contingencies,” she said. “We’re even getting properties where buyers are obtaining a mortgage but are waiving their mortgage contingency [a clause giving the buyer the right to back out of the contract and have their deposit returned if they can’t secure a mortgage] in an effort to compete with cash offers.”
Rich Rosa, cofounder and co-owner of Buyers Brokers Only LLC, also singled out Melrose. “Melrose has been a hot market for my home-buying clients — mostly millennial professionals — for at least a decade,” he said in an email. “Over that time, single-family inventory has often been in the single digits at any given time. Home buyers like the downtown, the proximity to Boston, and the access to public transportation. Multiple offers on homes in Melrose were common years before the 2020 pandemic.”
Kevin Sexton of William Raveis Real Estate said he grew up in Melrose and loves the city, but in recent years the quality of the schools and other services have deteriorated while home prices and tax bills have increased. He thinks Reading ($951,600) has overtaken Melrose in desirability because it provides more land at a better value.
“People come to Reading from places like Cambridge, Winchester, and Arlington,” Sexton said. “If they feel priced out of Reading, they used to go to Andover ($795,000), but since COVID, prices there have gone through the roof. If they can’t afford Reading, they move out to Wilmington ($675,000) and even Tewksbury ($725,000). Houses in Reading and Wilmington still regularly sell for over the asking price.”
South of Boston
Hillary Birch is with Compass Real Estate. She sells homes all over Greater Boston, but her focus in on the South Shore. She said most of her buyers fall roughly into one of two groups: People looking to be close to their work in Boston, and those looking farther out to communities with a little more land and strong schools.
“The first group is looking at Quincy ($650,000), Milton ($845,000), and Braintree ($654,000), but predominantly Quincy, she said. “They still want access to restaurants and the Red Line T station. The second group is OK with being a little farther from the city and is usually looking in Norwell ($992,500), Hanover ($645,000), and if they can afford it, Hingham ($1.4 million).”
But that hasn’t always been the case.
“Quincy has gotten more expensive in recent years,” she said. “If your budget is, say, $800,000, you can get a little bit more house in a nice town like Hanover than you can Quincy. The development that’s happened in Quincy has elevated pricing. And people who fled the city during COVID and moved to somewhere like Plymouth, they’re coming back.”
West of Boston
David Bates of William Raveis Real Estate said Arlington ($1.2 million) and Needham ($1.6 million) are two popular buyer destinations west of Boston. And the numbers tell the story.
“In Arlington, the median sale price to list price ratio in 2024 was 104.25 percent,” he said. “In 2023 it was 103.45 percent, which is very good. The median number of days to offer on sold properties was just six. It’s practically impossible to get lower — kind of like it’s impossible to have 100 percent employment.
Bates said there is reason to think there is even more room for growth.
“Arlington home prices could get a bump from new Cambridge zoning, which eliminates single-family zones,” he said. “Arlington also borders other very good markets, like Cambridge, Winchester, and Medford. It is ahead of the game in MBTA Communities Act and ADU [Accessory Dwelling Unit] approval. It also has a really good restaurant scene.
“In 2024, the median sale price of a single-family home in Needham was up $205,000 from 2023 according to MLS data, and was 101.3 percent of the asking price,” he said. “There’s great schools, new construction for sale, commuter rail access, and it borders some prestigious markets, like Wellesley, Newton, and Dover.”
Jim Morrison can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @jimmorrison617.
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