The numbers don’t lie (ok, maybe they can be interpreted, but let’s get on with the post). The Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) released their first quarter 2007 housing numbers for the entire state. It took them almost a month to confirm what we told you in early April:

• Market consumption (the number of sales) of Boston condos in the downtown Boston market increased from 2006 to 2007
• Average prices for Boston condos appreciated 6% quarter on quarter between 2006 and 2007

View the MAR Condominium Sales Information for first quarter 2007. The Boston Condos market is heating up – it took our friends at condoDomain three full-price offers to land a South End Condo, and we were out this weekend looking at North End Condos with droves of condo buyers, the Spring market is upon us.

It’s come to the end of April, and if you have not already done so, cast your vote for your favorite new Boston Condo Development. We will announce the winner later this week.

On the voting block are the following condo developments, which give a good representation of the new luxury developments that are either currently being developed, or are ready for occupancy:

Battery Wharf (North End Waterfront)
Penmark Condos (South End
D4 Police Station (South End)
The Bryant on Columbus (Back Bay)
Harbor View Navy Yard (Charlestown)
Meads of Commonwealth (Back Bay)

The D4 development has the current lead, but it’s anyone’s game at this point. Cast your vote by selecting the Boston condo development of your choice in the center column of this blog (to get more information and photos of each development, use the links above).

NOTE: Voting has closed.

If you have not done so already, please cast a vote for your favorite new Boston condo development. We’ll be tallying the scores at the end of April to see which condo development readers are most excited about.

The poll is located in the second column of the blog, just scroll down a little bit, and you should see it. In the running are the following new luxury Boston condo developments:

Battery Wharf (North End Waterfront)
Penmark Condos (South End
D4 Police Station (South End)
The Bryant on Columbus (Back Bay)
Harbor View Navy Yard (Charlestown)
Meads of Commonwealth (Back Bay)

Write in candidates will be accepted, just leave a comment on this post, and we will include your vote in the tally – we could perhaps have a dark horse winner.

NOTE: Voting has closed.

In response to our 2007 1st Quarter statistics post, we wanted to follow up with some further data on the Boston real estate market that should allow you to cut out all the “negativity” that you are hearing about real estate in Boston. Specifically, you have probably heard that inventory of Boston Condos is high right now, or more eloquently put,”there’s a lot on the market.”

Is this really true? No! Looking at a snapshot of active condominium listings in Boston today shows us that there are 698 condos on the market. What was the number the very same day in 2006? Well, inventory was 21% higher in 2006 at 846 condos!

Interesting, the inventory of Boston condos is actually lower today than it was last year. As we discussed in our earlier post, the average number of days on market has increased from 110 to 135, but that shouldn’t detract us from the point of this post: the inventory of Boston condos is low.

NOTE: We looked at condos in Boston proper, specifically in Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Chinatown, Financial District, Midtown, North End, South End, Waterfront, and the West End.

2007 has been an interesting year for Boston Condos. The murmur heard on the street is that there is a tremendous amount of inventory on the market, the market is beginning to favor the Buyer more than the Seller, and the Boston real estate market is in a slump. It’s easy to follow what you hear, rather than digging into the statistics to find out what is really going on. So let’s dig into the statistics by analyzing the first quarter (Q1) of both 2006 and 2007 to see what nuggets of information we can find.

Before we look at the numbers, the assumptions that we are working with here are:

• Properties are deemed to be condominiums
• Properties are in the city of Boston itself
• Sold properties represent those that undergo a change in ownership (i.e. we are not counting those that are under agreement)

Let’s take a different look at the situation. Let’s determine how many Boston condos sold in Q1 2006 vs. Q1 2007. To stimulate some conversation, let us try and determine whether the activity (sold condos) and the amount of market consumption year-on-year is the same, regardless of how much inventory there is or is not on the market. During the first quarter of 2006, the total number of condos that sold in Boston was 834, and the average number of days that a condo sat on the market until it sold was 95. Contrast this with the first quarter of 2007, where the total number of condos sold was 861, and the average days on market was 130. So, year-on-year, we see a paltry 3.2% increase in the number of properties sold, and a whopping 37% increase in the days on market. Combine this with the sales to list price ratio (a condo sold for what percentage of the price at which it was listed) that stayed relatively the same year-over-year, and you don’t have a lot of concrete information to use in order to speak negatively about the market. Bottom line, the market consumed slightly more condos in 2007 than in 2006, and it paid relatively the same premium for those properties. Maybe you are thinking that with the bump in days on market, consumers may have paid less on a year-over-year basis? If so, you would be wrong! Boston condos appreciated at 6% when looking at the average sales prices (from roughly $458K to $486K) from Q1 2006 to Q1 2007.

What does all of this tell you? Well, you can draw your own conclusions, but the stats show us that the market for Boston Condos is performing at a steady pace year-on-year, and despite a shift in days on the market, condo prices continue to appreciate on the whole. If anything, with the new Boston Condo Developments that continue to hit the market, we will continue to see the quality of condos increase, and perhaps along with that, prices.

For further information on Boston Real Estate, or to view the sales data used to stimulate this article, contact Boston Condo Guy.

In continuation of the Web 2.0 boom that has been ongoing for some time now, we wanted to take a moment to highlight the Boston Condos Google Maps search capability at Boston Condo Guy.

Boston Condo Guy allows you to search new condominium developments in Boston proper via Google Maps, providing you an intuitive way to locate a Boston condo where you want it. Visitors to Boston Condo Guy have the ability to click on each of the “pushpins” on the Google Map, displaying the name and picture of each Boston condo development. Additionally, there is an option to obtain more details on a specific development, along with the ability to view additional pictures.

The worst may be over for the condominium market in greater Boston, as newly released data show that sales of condo units rebounded in the city of Boston during the fourth quarter of 2006, climbing 0.9 percent over the same three-month period the previous year, while condo sales in the 54 cities and towns served by the Greater Boston Real Estate Board (GBREB) fell by just 100 units, or a modest 4.7 percent, in the final quarter of last year compared to the same quarter in 2005. The relatively stable sales pace follows sales declines of 12 percent and 15 percent in Boston during the second and third quarters of 2006 respectively, and decreases of 8 percent and 20 percent throughout the GBREB jurisdictional area in last year’s second and third quarters, an indication that demand is improving and a recovery in prices may not be far off.

Notably, in greater Boston, the median selling price for condominiums slipped 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter to $327,000, but was down just 1.4 percent on an annual basis last year, declining from an all-time high median price of $345,000 in 2005 to $340,000 in 2006. Meanwhile, in Boston proper the median selling price for condos sold in the final three months of the year fell 7.1 percent from the same period a year earlier to $325,000, however the annual median selling price was flat in 2006, at $349,000.

On an annual basis, sales of condominiums declined 7.6 percent in the City of Boston during 2006 from one year earlier, while sales activity dropped 9.5 percent across the larger 54 community GBREB jurisdiction. Nonetheless, the 9.529 condos sold in greater Boston in 2006 is the second highest yearly sales volume on record, topped only the 10,526 units sold in 2005. Statewide, last year, condo sales fell 12.1 percent, from a record 23,536 in 2005 to 20,698. For complete quarterly and annual data on the condominium and single-family home markets in both greater Boston and Massachusetts, visit the Housing & Research Data section of marealtor.com.

The Web Innovators Group of Boston held a meeting on Wednesday, November 29, 2006 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, MA. The evening was kicked off with informal conversation and “side dishes” of innovative start up companies in the Boston Area.

From a real estate perspective, the interesting online service Citysquares.com was pitched, which is a local Boston company that brings together local businesses and their consumers – and we’re talking really local here, as in what’s down the block.

The roof may have collapsed on the Bay State’s housing boom, but sales in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill so far have exceeded last years levels as prices fell slightly.

While home sales dipped statewide by 6.4% in Massachusetts to 15,381 units this year, down from 16,438 for the same period a year ago, the two downtown neighborhoods saw home sales rise, according to data from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and the MLS Property Information Network (MLS).

Sales of single-family homes and Boston condos during the first half of this year on Beacon Hill increased to 93 units up from 63 for the same period last year, a 34% increase, according to MLS. The Back Bay saw a more modest increase of 5% as the number of units sold this year reached 197, up from 188 units a year ago.

Despite a sluggish market statewide, Beacon Hill and Back Bay remain among the most popular Boston neighborhoods.