In May, Greater Boston was a very expensive outlier in the home and condo market
Home prices in the usual suspects like Cambridge, Brookline, Newton, Needham and Somerville posted double digit increases in May, The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman reports. Ditto for upscale Boston neighborhoods like Charlestown and Jamaica Plain, as well as in working class, but fast changing, Dorchester.
Just call it a tale of two real estate markets.
While prices and sales across much of Massachusetts appear to have stalled out, the real estate boom is reaching new heights in some of the hottest city neighborhoods and suburbs in Greater Boston.
Home prices in the usual suspects like Cambridge, Brookline, Newton, Needham and Somerville posted double digit increases in May, The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman reports. Ditto for upscale Boston neighborhoods like Charlestown and Jamaica Plain, as well as in working class, but fast changing, Dorchester.
Some suburbs a little bit farther out also joined the party, with Melrose and Ipswich north of Boston and Medfield, Dover and Wayland to the west all posting strong double-digit increases.
Condo prices were a bit more subdued, but Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston and Quincy all saw double-digit appreciation nonetheless.
By contrast, sales of single-family homes across the state fell 10 percent in May, with the median price edging down 1.5 percent, to $341,000, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reports.
The real estate group blamed the dive in sales on a now chronic and years-long dearth of homes for sale, driven in part by low levels of new construction.
“Low inventory has once again pushed closed home sales down in May. The good news is that new listings are coming on to the market and that is a positive sign for this summer market,’’ said MAR President Corinne Fitzgerald, broker-owner of FITZGERALD Real Estate in Greenfield. “More homes for sale will help, but we still need more workforce housing and to remove barriers to production to make up the gap.’’
Greater Boston prices jump again
Leading the way was Cambridge. The home of Harvard, MIT and countless biotech companies saw its median home price jump more than 34 percent, to $1.3 million, while sales edged up by 3 percent, while neighboring Brookline posted a 16 percent gain, to $1.6 million, The Warren Group reports.
Somerville home prices climbed 10 percent, to $573,000, while sales rose 15 percent, and Arlington saw a 9 percent gain, to more than $658,000.
Condos and ‘burbs
Condo prices also went up, by 5.4 percent in Cambridge ($580,000) and by 9 percent in Brookline ($655,000), according to the Boston real estate publisher and data firm.
A number of Boston neighborhoods are also bucking the larger trend of flat-lining sales and prices, The Warren Group reports.
• Charlestown home prices leaped nearly 40 percent, to $871,500, while condo prices were up 17 percent, to $600,000. Condo sales increased nearly 50 percent sales increase during the first five months of 2015.
• Home prices rose 18 percent in Jamaica Plain, to $755,000.
• Dorchester saw home prices rise 14 percent, to $372,500; condo prices rose 12 percent, to just under $340,000.
• Condo prices soared 23 percent in East Boston, to $345,500. The neighborhood is in the middle of a waterfront building boom.
Several suburbs also posted big gains as well.
Newton led the way. The median price of a home in the Garden City rocketed 24 percent, to more than $1.1 million. Other examples include: Dover, which saw a 13 percent increase, to over $1 million; Needham, 10 percent, to $883,000; Ipswich, 11 percent, to $420,000; Melrose, 17 percent, to $487,000; Medfield, nearly 16 percent, to $640,000.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com