Condos are still cheaper, with a median price statewide of just under $260,000, according to The Warren Group, the Boston-based real estate publisher and data firm. But they are not that much cheaper, with the median price of a single-family home falling to $271,000 in November.
Now let’s be realistic here – the Boston area is terrible when it comes to starter homes.
The few new homes that are still getting built or more likely than not to be overpriced, ugly McMansions. (You couldn’t pay me enough to live in some of these cold looking boxes.) You are probably still talking about something that needs work, but maybe now not the kind of wreck that many home buyers settled for back during the bubble years.
Of course, the Realtors are onto the fact that condos are not exactly hot right now. I walked into a open house last Sunday – it’s my strange idea of fun – thinking I was looking at a single-family home.
Certainly it looked like a 1970s two-story suburban house – there was only one doorway in front. On closer inspection, it became clear the house was actually a two family – the only mention of it in the sales sheet, though, was the item tucked way down on the page of “no condo fee.” Oh, and that the home insurance was split with No. 7 (Blank) Street, with no mention of what No. 7 was.
Buyers could figure this whole scenario out once they started poking around, but at that point, they had crossed already crossed the threshold.
Of course, I am relying on pending sales for my snapshot of a trouble condo market – I would argue they are a good overall snap shot of market activity.
However, the MAR pending sales stats match up roughly with what The Warren Group has reported in terms of completed condo sales.
Condo sales were down 16.4 percent through November 2011 compared to the same period in 2010, according to the Warren stats, the latest numbers available.