Boston appreciation rates and housing market information

Boston housing market information

With 589,141 people, 251,935 houses or apartments, and a median cost of homes of $420,928, real estate costs in Boston are among some of the highest in the nation, although house prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive Massachusetts communities.

large apartment complexes or high rise apartments are the single most common housing type in Boston, accounting for 42.60% of the city's housing units. Other types of housing that are prevalent in Boston include duplexes, homes converted to apartments, or other small apartment buildings (40.65%), single-family detached homes (11.72%), and a few row houses and other attached homes (4.91%). Cities with mostly row houses, apartments, and other high density housing types are relatively uncommon, and characteristic of compact cities that frequently have a downtown or other neighborhoods where amenities are within walking distance and a lot of street life can be seen.

Boston is dominated by renter-occupied one, two, or no bedroom apartments. 64.43% of Boston's dwellings are rentals.

The housing in Boston was primarily built before 1939 (53.47%), making the housing stock in Boston some of the older overall in America, although there is a range of ages of homes in Boston. The next most important Boston housing age is 1940-1969 (29.04%), followed by 1970-1994 (15.79%). There's also some housing in Boston built between 1995 and later (1.70%).

Boston home appreciation rates

Appreciation rates for homes in Boston have been tracking above average for the last ten years, according to NeighborhoodScout data. The cumulative appreciation rate over the ten years has been 82.30%, which ranks in the top 40% nationwide. This equates to an annual average Boston house appreciation rate of 8.23%.

Over the last year, Boston appreciation rates have trailed the rest of the nation. In the last twelve months, Boston's appreciation rate has been -4.95%, which is lower than appreciation rates in most communities in America. In the latest quarter, NeighborhoodScout's data show that house appreciation rates in Boston were at -0.63%, which equates to an annual appreciation rate of -2.52%.

Notably, Boston's appreciation rate in the latest quarter is one of the lowest in America.

Relative to Massachusetts, our data show that Boston's latest annual appreciation rate is higher than 45% of the other cities and towns in Massachusetts.

One very important thing to keep in mind is that these are average appreciation rates for the city. Individual neighborhoods within Boston differ in their investment potential, sometimes by a great deal. Fortunately, you can use NeighborhoodScout to pinpoint the exact neighborhoods in Boston - or in any city or town - that have the best track record of real estate appreciation, by the latest quarter, the last year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, or even since 1990, to assist you in making the best Boston real estate investment or home purchase decisions.