Downtown Boston median townhouse price jumps in first quarter 2019, report says

The median sales price for a downtown Boston townhouse increased 30.1 percent in the first quarter of 2019, to $1.35 million, compared with the same three months in 2018, according to a new report from appraiser Miller Samuel and brokerage Douglas Elliman.

The same report found a median sales price for condos of $810,000, itself a product of a modest 1 percent year-over-year increase.

The report tracked closed deals in Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Charleston, Fenway, Midtown, the North End, the Seaport District, South Boston, the South End, and the West End.

The average townhouse price was $1,734,280—a 3.8 percent increase over the first quarter of 2018—compared with an average of $1,126,556 for condos. The average price per square foot for townhouses was $717, a 1.9 percent decline from 2018; for condos, it was $984.

As for townhouse sales, those were way up versus the first quarter of 2018: 22.2 percent, to 66. The number of townhouse sales has now increased year over year for three of the past four quarters, according to the Miller Samuel-Douglas Elliman report.

Meanwhile, the inventory of unsold townhouses on the market dropped year over year for the second straight quarter.