As we turn towards the second half of the year, and Sellers deliberate listing their condos for sale, one of the questions we receive most often revolves around what a realistic price per square foot is in various downtown Boston neighborhoods. This type of information is also very useful for Buyers to have as well, to help set expectations about what realistic price points are in particular neighborhoods.
In 2008, the average price per square foot in the South End has been approximately $613 (median of $612). The data range, covering nearly 300 condos, runs from $340 to $997 per square foot. The lowest being $340 per square foot at 162 Appleton Street Unit 1, a large garden level unit that sold in March after being on the market for an accumulated year of activity. The high end was at 290 Columbus Avenue Unit 3, a 316 square foot pied-a-terre that sold after only 24 days on the market (Note: data pulled from the Boston MLS).
We’ll continue to look at the other downtown Boston neighborhoods, all of which we provide assistance in both helping Sellers list their condo for sale, and Buyers purchase the right condo for their needs. When looking at housing statistics, be careful not to only focus on averages, also consider median values (the number in the middle of your data), because averages can be pulled significantly one way or the other with only a small number of outlying data points.
Keith Munsell 
