Boston Globe Story- By Elizabeth Gehrman APRIL 12, 2017
Where homes are in high demand, for prices ranging from under $500,000 to more than $1 million.
Confidence is contagious if you’re selling a home in the Boston area. In 2016, the fifth year since home prices started rebounding after the ruinous Great Recession, single-family sales increased by double digit percentages for the state as a whole, according to Tim Warren, CEO of the Boston-based market tracking firm The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. “The feeding frenzy is back, with crowded open houses and multiple offers,” he says. “That has accelerated price increases in the communities closest to Boston.”
Accelerated them so much, in fact, that in several areas, medians have surged well beyond their pre-recession peaks. Cambridge, for example, has seen prices almost double, so a house that would have cost you $667,500 in 2005 set you back $1,315,000 last year. The numbers are continuing to climb: Arlington, Watertown, West Roxbury, and many more are at least 20 percent more expensive than they were just over a decade ago. Other communities, like Revere, Everett, and Lynn, Warren says, are “right on the cusp of having recovered all the way,” making big equity gains for buyers more likely over the next few years. He cites Somerville’s growth as an example of the attitude change that’s now coming to this and other undervalued communities. “Somerville used to be like Revere,” he says. “Now it’s more like Cambridge.”
