How long to sell a downtown Boston condo? The answer is probably a lot longer than you think. Before I get into the answer, I’d like to quickly mention that we beat the local averages. These are not my numbers, the numbers in this article are averages for all the Boston condo sales in the Boston metro area, using all the different Boston real estate agents out there.
Average time to sell a Downtown Boston condo in 2018:
- Back Bay: 63 days
- Beacon Hill: 57 days
- Charlestown: 34 days
- Leather District: 38 days
- Midtown: 102 days
- North End: 23 days
- Seaport District: 48 days
- South Boston: 22 days
- South End: 27 days
- Waterfront: 85 days
- West End: 39 days
Longer than you think
Now when we say average time to sell a Boston condo, we are counting the days from the first day of the listing to the day the sellers accept an offer from a buyer. We are not talking about the average time it takes to close a Boston condo sale that is already agreed on and in escrow, that is around 45 days and is a relatively stable figure. The above is from MLS, our local source for regional Boston condo sales. The above is the average time to sell a home in the greater Boston metro.
Yes, some neighborhoods and suburbs sell faster than others. But if you think that the average Boston condominium in your neighborhood sells in a few days, you might want to reconsider that position. Let’s take the fastest overall month so far in the metro last year
The hottest part of town (and it has been for while now), South Boston, the average home still took a full three weeks – on average – before the seller accepted an offer from a buyer. That is the cold, hard data.
So why do so many Boston condo owners believe their home will sell immediately? Well, first off they love their home! They are the ones that bought it after all. Second, it is easier to focus on the positive, the homes they see sell quickly, rather than the ones that are sitting. Third, the news media focuses on the sensational. A home sitting for a couple months with no offers is not sensational. Our local newspapers and news stations regularly publish articles on home bidding wars and use the most extreme examples they can find in their reports.
In fact, many Boston high rise condos do not sell at all. There are an awful lot of homes that enter the Boston real estate market each year and don’t sell at all. They cancel the listing and give up.
Again, my real estate team beats these averages by a long margin. However, we certainly do not expect to sell every single home and we do not expect to sell every single home in just a couple days.
I believe the Boston real estate market needs a little dash of reality. And in fact, it is slowing down. We still have plenty of healthy growth, but it may be time to temper our market expectations. The Boston condo for sale market is good here and unlikely to slow down significantly anytime soon, but it isn’t the whirlwind so many local news reports make it out to be.
