Boston’s luxury homes are seeing some of the biggest jumps in average sale price to start this year, making it one of the hottest luxury markets in the country, according to a recent study by Redfin.
Redfin took a look at average sales price in a number of wealthy markets and major cities to see how home-price growth in the luxury sector compares to the rest of the market. Nationally, prices in the bottom 95 percent of the market outperformed luxury for the ninth consecutive quarter, Redfin said. Luxury home prices rose 4 percent in the first quarter of 2017 for an average price of $1.65 million, while non-luxury homes rose 7 percent to an average price of $307,000.
In Boston, luxury home prices rose by 14 percent this quarter versus the same time last year, more than doubling the national average for luxury sales prices, according to Redfin. Luxury homes in the area sold for an average of $3.54 million in Q1 2017. Non-luxury homes averaged a sales price of $675,000, a nearly 12 percent increase over the same period last year.
| Luxury markets | Rest of market | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City | Average sale price | YoY change | Average sale price | YoY change |
| Boston | $3.5 million | 14% | $675,000 | 11.80% |
The rising of average sales price for both luxury and non-luxury homes further illustrates a well-known fact about Boston and its historically tight inventory that make a competitive market even more expensive. Boston’s average luxury sales price of $3.54 million is the second highest of any market Redfin studied, behind only San Francisco’s $5.3 million. Its non-luxury sales price was also the second highest, again behind booming San Francisco. Boston had the fourth highest gains in median sales prices since 2012.