With the release of Quarter One stats for the Boston housing market, we see clearly that the market is off to a strong start for 2016. Single family homes in the Boston area increased 12.% from last year while condos rose 30% from the year prior with 750 units sold in March! This is the highest total since 2007 – almost ten years ago!

(You can download a full, neighborhood level market stats report here!)

Neighborhood Breakdowns

Looking at some downtown neighborhoods, we see similar increases in many markets – with some huge gains from the year before! Take a look:

Back Bay

There were 21 closed condo sales in Back Bay in March of this year, an increase of 31.3% – right in line with Boston area overall stats. Interestingly, the median sales price was actually down significantly to $836,000 mainly due to some very large transfers the year prior.

South End

We actually see an almost opposite situation in neighboring South End as we do in Back Bay. In looking at condo sales again, we see an over 16% decrease in sales volume to 26 units. However, the median sales price saw an increase of over 74% to just over $1 Million. This is due greatly to the amazing weather this year – especially compared to that in 2015.

Beacon Hill

Coming in with somewhat more consistent stats for their condo market, Beacon Hill saw a nice jump in median sales price with an increase of over 23%. As you can see, inventory was very scarce last year, with less than a month of inventory on the market. This has increased this year as sellers had more time to prepare their home for sale.