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Back Bay Listing Prices Jump; South Boston Leads in Sales

Like today's rainy weather, the Boston housing market seems rather overcast. We broke down some stats from Trulia to show that it might be a particularly chilly winter, indeed.

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The average listing price for all housing types in Boston dropped throughout September, from $817,000 at the end of the first week to just over $785,000 by month's end. The median sales price, meanwhile, dropped 7.8 percent annually in September to $507,223—not as bad as, say, 2003 and 2004, when the median hovered around $320,000, but little different from what it was during the Great Recession. The median earlier this year had flirted with the $600,000 threshold, but it appears, given the traditionally slower winter selling season and the fresh, heaping pile of horrid economic news, that it will not pierce that in 2011.

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The upside? Sales rose in September by 17.5 percent over the same month in 2010. And the average sales price per square foot inched upward annually by 0.9 percent to $650; still, that's way, way off the $915 reached this past April.

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Let's stroll the neighborhoods a bit, shall we?
· Back Bay had the highest average listing price at the end of September: $1,978,438. The median was $624,750, down slightly from the same time in 2010.
· South Boston had the most home sales of any neighborhood, with 170. The average listing price was $470,429, about even with the start of September, and the median was up over 2 percent annually to $379,000.
· The South End had the second highest average listing price, after Back Bay: $797,786. And its median was up over 8 percent from September 2010, to $560,000.
· Charlestown's median was down, however, 5.7 percent to $423,375. The average listing price was $616,537.
· In Jamaica Plain, the average listing price was up during the month to $467,969, while the median was down 2.3 percent annually to $376,250.
· And in Fenway/Kenmore, the average listing price jumped 11.8 percent to $474,182, though the median was down over 10 percent annually to $285,000.

Trulia provides a handy city-wide price map here (hint: the red means things are HOT). ALP_20110928_1.jpg

· Boston Real Estate Overview [Trulia]