Either-Or: A Spacious Milton Colonial vs. a Slick Cambridge Condo

It’s amazing what a few miles will do to the market. This month, we compare a cool-toned South Shore home with a whitewashed two-bedroom near Harvard.


Photo by Joan Pearsall, Best View Imaging, Courtesy of Mary Beth Grant, Coldwell Banker (Milton); Photo by Matt Delphenich (Cambridge)

9 Cape Cod Lane, MiltonSale Price: $930,0005-7 Rutland Street, #7/2, Cambridge
$879,000
19
2,441 square feet
3
1.5
Asking Price
Days on Market
Size
Bedrooms
Bathrooms
$899,000
82
1,207 square feet
2
1

There’s nothing crisper than a fallen leaf on a November day—but these recently sold homes come close. The first, a stone-front Milton three-bedroom, wooed buyers with its fresh white and pale-gray walls offset by warm grasscloth wallpaper; marble-appointed kitchen with two island breakfast bars; and oversize living room fireplace. It’s no wonder the previous homeowners accepted an offer within a few days, and for more than $50,000 over asking.

Travel north to Cambridge, and you’ll find another home with a stunning grayscale palette that sold for $930,000. That’s about where the similarities end, though: Half the size of the Milton single-family, the two-bedroom condo between Harvard and Porter squares features a butler’s pantry lined with quartz counters, a kitchen jazzed up with beadboard paneling, and custom bookcases, all packed into about 1,200 square feet. It just goes to show: It’s possible to find a home with designer finishes in the city or the close-in ’burbs for under a million bucks—all you have to decide is how much space you really need.