It's the start of the month, and that means that Curbed Boston's Neighborhood Watch is in full effect. Tenth up (Back Bay, Charlestown, Beacon Hill, Bay Village, South Boston, the North End, Allston, Brighton and Brookline were covered earlier), a deeper look at recent real estate trends in Cambridge (O.K., like Brookline, it's not technically a neighborhood, it's a town, a city actually, but you know...). (All statistics, unless otherwise cited, courtesy of Trulia.)
Average Listing Price
The overall average asking dropped sharply through October, from around $663,000 to $614,964. In every part of Cambridge, in fact, the average dropped, at least a little bit—in tony West Cambridge, it went from $1.39 million in early October to $1,228,100 in early November; in North Cambridge, it dropped by about $1,000, to $431,679.
Sales Prices
Same story here, really: Cambridge's median sales price continued its post-summer drop, from nearly $460,000 to $420,000—itself an annual drop of over 5 percent. The average sales price per square foot was up slightly from last year, to $446, but still off from summer highs of over $450.
Sales
Perhaps not surprisingly, then, Cambridge home sales bounced a bit compared to this time last year, up 12.4 percent. Still, they were down from summer peaks (see chart).
Prognosis
Depends on where you look or live. Things look particularly bleak in West Cambridge (the median sales price was down annually over 44 percent); but slightly brighter in East Cambridge, where the median was off only 13 percent or so from 2010. Generally speaking, get thee to a block near Harvard or M.I.T., and your property prospects shall improve. Or just wait for asking prices to come down further, and the sales price drops should mitigate.
· Charlestown Sales Jump As Prices Hold Ever So Steady [Curbed Boston]
· Back Bay Prices, Sales Up; Tom Brady Not Hurting Things [Curbed Boston]
· In Beacon Hill, Wide Gulf Between Askings and Takings [Curbed Boston]
· For Bay Village, Tiny Sales and Ginormous Price Moves [Curbed Boston]
· South Boston Home Sales Booming; Sellers Asking Less [Curbed Boston]
· North End Housing Market Heads South [Curbed Boston]
· Up In Allston! Median Sales Price Bounces 57 Percent [Curbed Boston]
· In Brighton, Titanic Price Shifts Amid Booming Sales [Curbed Boston]
· Pricey Brookline Priciest Since '07; Sales Jump [Curbed Boston]
· Our Cambridge archive [Curbed Boston]