Categories
analytics

South End Condo Prices Up 6%

As of 10.31.2011, average condo prices are up 6% year-over-year in the South End, according to MLSPIN. This is stunning figure given the real estate headlines day in and day out in local and national media! This is a very sticky figure that has remained steady for most of the year.

What is behind this figure? The average price of a condo sold year-to-date in the South End is $667K which represents a 6% increase over the average $630K sale price in 2010. Other figures include: a median price of $545K, which represents a 4% increase over last year’s median price of $545K; total number of sales year-to-date of 412, which is 5% lower than in 2010 and the total dollar volume of condo sales is $274M – just about flat with last year.

And most other downtown Boston neighborhoods are maintaining their value as well. Lucky for all of us, Boston remains resilient in this stormy real estate environment. Relative to the rest of the country, Boston still rocks!

In future posts, I will examine these statistics in depth and discuss what they mean now and for the future of our real estate markets.

Categories
architecture

Eight Exceptional Properties and 180 Exceptional Agents

This happened a few weeks ago, but still worth talking about. Picture 180 real estate agents from downtown, Wellesley, Arlington, Newton, Weston Cambridge and Brookline. In town cars, Mercedes buses and on foot. Give them a chance to tour eight phenomenal properties in Beacon Hill, Back Bay and the South End – from $1.8M to $6.3M – and you have a wonderfully dynamic mix of properties and personalities. Ken Tutunjian was the creative director of the tour and Jeffrey Heighton was the Beacon Hill office host.

And I was transportation director, go figure. You try coordinating six vehicles picking up and dropping off 180 agents over three hours at eight different addresses who were all hungry and needed restrooms by 11AM. Amazingly, the tour was a smashing success.

                      

The goal was to group some of our best luxury properties so that a broad assortment of agents from downtown and the near metro west burbs could see a remarkable representation of downtown luxury inventory. Transport them in luxury, arm them with pertinent information, give them guided tours of each home and of course, provide a sumptuous luncheon at Smith & Wollensky’s sponsored by Boston.

My personal favorite was 129 Charles Street. It was the only single family residence on Charles Street. What a surprise! A totally reworked interior, very modern, very open and unbelievably sophisticated – all inside a very traditional Charles Street brick exterior. $4.75M