Both are land constrained, boutique markets with thriving innovation sector industries. While tech rules in SF, life sciences are king in Greater Boston, though our tech sector is also on a tear now as well.
Moreover, the long-term factors that pushed Boston area prices up during the bubble years have temporarily abated, but have certainly not gone away.
Construction of new homes has been anemic since a modest boom in the 80s and conditions for builders are only getting worse as suburbs, stressed about school costs, shut their doors to new development.
As it stands now, the median price of a home in Middlesex County is $435,000, the highest in the state, according to The Warren Group.
But of course there are several suburbs where the median is already at or near or well beyond the $700,000 mark, including Manchester, Belmont, Concord, Lexington, Cambridge, Newton, Lincoln, Wellesley, Weston, Winchester, Sherborn, Brookline, Dover, Needham, Westwood, Sudbury and Hingham.
So could $700,000 someday become the average home price in the Boston area, instead of the exception, as it is now? Well it could take a few years, but throw in another bubble and anything is possible!