Boston Median Home Price Increases 12% in 2020
#MedianHomePrice increased 11.4% in #Massachusetts in 2020, despite rental #market #supply concerns. See what’s driving this trend!
2020 marked another banner year for the Massachusetts housing market despite many challenges presented by COVID-19. The Bay State’s median home price for a single family home increased 11.4% to $445,500 in 2020, while the total number of single family home sales increased 3.9% to 61,469, according to the Warren Group. All this happened while the state was dealing with record high unemployment numbers and unprecedented apartment vacancies in Metro Boston.
The housing market remained relatively stagnant throughout the first half of 2020 due to low consumer confidence amidst the pandemic. However, a strong Q3 and a record December helped finish the year strong going into 2021. In December, 6,410 single family home sales were recorded, the largest number of sales in one month since 2004 and the most ever recorded in the month of December.
The increase in prices is mainly due to inventory shortages across the state, as total housing inventory totaled 1.07 million units, a 23% drop from one year ago. Unsold inventory hit an all time low of 1.9 month supply, down from 3.0 month supply in December 2019. It’s more obvious than ever that demand in Massachusetts is still far outpacing supply despite efforts to increase housing inventory over the last few years.
