Boston Condo Prices Up 20 Percent in June

Downtown Boston condominium sales volume was flat in June but prices rose in many of its neighborhoods, according to data released this morning by The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.

In Boston Proper, sales volume dropped nominally, down 1.42 percent, but the median sales price rose a whopping 20.83 percent to $723,750, when compared to June 2013. Boston Proper includes the South End, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, West End, North End, Waterfront, Midtown, Chinatown, Bay Village, and Fenway neighborhoods.

Home buyers in Boston faced a difficult situation this spring. Condo sales closings reported in June reflect purchase decisions made in April and May, when there was hardly any inventory and sellers had complete control of the market. This led to higher list prices and multiple bidding wars.

Results were all over the place in Boston’s other neighborhoods. Brighton condo sales volume dropped 30 percent. Charlestown’s sales dropped by 13.79 percent but prices were up 7.44 percent. Sales rose by more than 79 percent in Dorchester.

The Jamaica Plain condo sales market remained constant when compared to a year earlier but, like downtown Boston, prices skyrocketed, up 22.30 percent. Roxbury’s median-priced condo sold for 6.85 percent more than in June 2013.

South Boston may have what is strongest real estate market. Sales prices rose 32 percent while the median sales price increased by 13 percent. It will now cost the typical Southie buyer almost half a million dollars to move into the neighborhood.

For the Commonwealth as a whole, condominium sales volume increased in June by more than 11 percent from a year earlier. Year-to-date, condo sales are up 9.7 percent from the year before. The median sales price increased slightly in June, up 1.6 percent to $325,000.

The S&P / Case Shiller home price indices for May were released today, as well, and they tell a similar story. Condominium values rose 2.8 percent, in the metropolitan Boston area, reaching an all-time high. Greater Boston condo prices reached their previous high in October 2005, before dropping during the recession.