Here’s a funny thing I just realized.
Last May, Scott Van Voorhis of the Boston Herald wrote a column about a drop in the average sales price of condos on the Waterfront.
The average price of a harbor-side condo perch plunged nearly 40 percent during the first quarter compared to the same period last year, falling to an average of $564,944, according to the Listing Information Network, or LINK.
That’s down from $902,644 in the first three months of 2005, widely considered to be the high-water-mark of the recent, record run-up in real estate prices, statistics show. The price declines came even as the number of waterfront condos sold more than doubled, to 86.
The disturbing data, though, emerges against a backdrop of frenzied construction activity, with developers racing to open a pair of glitzy new waterfront towers, one near Rowes Wharf and the other on the North End’s harbor-front.
The takeaway from the article? That sales prices were plummeting in this part of the city. “Plunged”, “Falling”, “Disturbing data”, are the words he used.
But, as I said in a blog entry, back then, Mr Van Voorhis was mis-using the data. Prices had dropped by 40%, because a new condo building came online, and the average price of those condos was much less than those that had sold the previous year. (Specifically, sales at Folio Boston closed, whereas the year before sales at such higher-priced complexes such as Rowes Wharf and Harbor Towers closed.) Increasing the supply of condos, at lower prices, is a good thing, not a bad thing, right?!!!
What’s new, this quarter?
According to LINK, the source of Mr Van Voorhis’ data, the median price of condo sales on the Waterfront in fourth quarter 2005 was $529,000, whereas the median price of condo sales on the Waterfront in fourth quarter 2006 was $825,000, or an increase of 55%.
So, Mr Van Voorhis, where’s your article about this turn of events? I’m waiting.
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Updated: 1st Quarter 2018
