Last month, we told you that the downtown condo market was having a rather happy holiday season. Final 2011 numbers from our friends at Link covering neighborhoods like Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Bay Village, Charlestown, the South End, the North End and Fenway back that up.
Sales in luxury condo buildings like the Clarendon (pictured), 45 Province, the W and One Charles were up nearly 3 percent annually in 2011, and the median sales price was up 8.2 percent to $719,500. The median for downtown condos overall was $474,250, up almost 1 percent from 2010. And the total number of downtown condo sales for 2011, 2,579, represented a 0.47 percent increase from the year before. Also, median home values downtown were up 2 percent over 2005, at a time when they're down by double digits across the commonwealth.
Why the relative health (for sellers and their brokers, at least) amid generally glum housing news?
Tight inventory. And it's downtown Boston.
In the last quarter of 2011, there were 495 condos on the market, the lowest fourth-quarter total in at least a decade. Brokers told The Globe's Jenifer B. McKim this low inventory only adds to the scramble for a seemingly inexhaustible pipeline of buyers. “The city market has been incredibly resilient through all of this,’’ said John Ranco, a senior sales associate with Hammond Residential Real Estate. “Demand remains strong here.’’
· Downtown Condo Market Steady in 2011 [Globe]
· Downtown Boston Condo Market Island in Rough Mass. Sea [Curbed Boston]
· Downtown Boston Condo Market Having Happy Holiday Season [Curbed Boston]