Home Buying
What a difference five years make: The cost of a condo has climbed 22.5%, while the price of the typical family home is up a whopping 44.5%.
To quote singer Tom Jones, “It’s not unusual.” In the case of real estate, it’s not unusual to see prices cool off with the temperatures in September.
Temperatures, home prices, and sales did cool in September. The median sales price of $850,000 for a single-family home in Greater Boston last month still broke the record for September (by $50), according to a report the Greater Boston Association of Realtors released Tuesday, but it’s a far cry from the $961,250 properties were commanding back in June.
It was the third straight month of price declines, according to the GBAR.
In the condo market, the median sales price for a unit dropped 1.7 percent year over year to $673,500. Remember when condos commanded a median price of $750,000 in June? Still, back in September 2019, the median sales price for a condo was $550,000, making for a 22.5 percent jump in five years. (The median sales price for a single-family home in Greater Boston has increased a whopping 40.5 percent in that same time frame).
High mortgage rates and low inventory are also dampening sales. In September 2019, there were 1,064 closed sales for single-family homes. Last month, there were only 744, a 30 percent drop.
The condo market saw only 630 sales, a 10.6 percent drop compared to September 2023 and “the lowest for any September in over a dozen years,” the GBAR reported.
“There was a noticeable lull in market activity over the final weeks of the summer as many buyers opted to delay their home purchase decision until after the Fed moved to lower interest rates, while others have grown more skittish and adopted a wait-and-see attitude as the presidential election approaches. That’s resulted in a smaller buyer pool and decidedly slower sales pace since the start of September,” said Jared Wilk, GBAR president and a broker with Compass in Wellesley. “We’ve also seen a sharp increase in listings since the Labor Day weekend, which has afforded buyers more time and a
greater selection of homes to choose from, so they’re acting with less urgency than they did earlier in the year.”
That inventory rise — the number of active listings is up at least 23 percent in both the single-family and condo markets — has also put a damper on price gains, according to the GBAR.
“With fewer buyers in the market over the last couple of months and a more plentiful supply of homes and condos now available for sale, we’re not seeing as much upward pressure on prices,” Wilk said. “Today’s buyers are not only
finding more opportunity to negotiate, but with mortgage rates down about a half point since late spring and a full point from a year ago, purchasing power has improved, making the market moderately more affordable.”
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Most of those homes are selling for the asking price, but sellers shouldn’t be too aggressive with pricing, Wilk warned. “With the prime selling season behind us and sales activity having become more seasonal of late, we’re seeing fewer multiple-offer situations, more bids below asking price, and lengthier listing times before properties go under agreement.”
Single-family homes spent 19 days on the market on average last month, two days longer than they did in September 2023. Condos are taking about 20 days to sell on average. In September 2023, it was 18.5 days.
A healthy market has at least a five-month supply of listings. In September, Greater Boston had a 2.4-month supply of single-family homes and 3.6-months’ worth of condo listings.
Across Massachusetts
The median sales price for a single-family home was $600,000 last month, a 6.2 percent increase over September 2023, according to The Warren Group, a real estate analytics firm.
Meanwhile, the median sales price for a condo, viewed as a more affordable gateway to homeownership, was $515,000, reflecting a 3 percent year-over-year increase.
Here’s a breakdown of prices per county in both markets:
| COUNTY | MEDIAN CONDO PRICE SEPT. 2024 | % CHANGE YEAR OVER YEAR |
MEDIAN SINGLE-FAMILY PRICE SEPT. 2024 | % CHANGE YEAR OVER YEAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barnstable | $517,000 | 19.3% | $720,000 | 2.1% |
| Berkshire | $310,000 | 9.2% | $290,000 | -13.8% |
| Bristol | $380,500 | 5.7% | $500,000 | 10.1% |
| Dukes | * | * | $1,667,500 | 41.9% |
| Essex | $457,500 | 3.7% | $691,000 | 4.3% |
| Franklin | $315,000 | 12.5% | $305,000 | -2.4% |
| Hampden | $240,500 | 10.8% | $324,500 | 8.2% |
| Hampshire | $265,838 | -16.9% | $422,500 | 7.6% |
| Middlesex | $592,500 | -6.5% | $750,000 | -2.5% |
| Nantucket | $3,300,000 | 247.6% | $3,150,000 | -5.3% |
| Norfolk | $558,000 | 0.7% | $729,000 | 4.1% |
| Plymouth | $465,000 | 11.9% | $610,000 | 8.0% |
| Suffolk | $660,000 | 0% | $735,000 | 1.0% |
| Worcester | $346,000 | -1.1% | $467,500 | 5.1% |
Check out The Warren Group’s breakdown of year-to-date county prices and sales.
Prospective buyers looking to buy a condo in Quincy should know that the median sales price in the city last month was $484,950, a nearly 13 percent decrease compared to September 2023.
Home shoppers looking for a house in Arlington and Needham faced median sale prices of $1,212,500 and $1,325,000, respectively. The Arlington home market is hot; that median sales price reflects a 7.1 percent year-over-year jump, according to The Warren Group. The median sales price in Needham is a nearly 9 percent decline, but based on nearly twice as many sales.
Check out the sales information for all 351 Massachusetts cities and towns.
