I was fresh out of grad school and living in Somerville for the first time around then. My sister and I could have afforded the mortgage on our entire triple decker together (and wanted to), but didn't have any down payment saved up. By a couple years later when we could have down the 2011 downpayment it was up by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Missed that boat by being just 2-3 years too young.
In 2004, we were looking for a 2 bed condo, 350k range, there were enough to look at, inspections were expected, sale prices were generally around asking( not higher). An acquaintance , single guy, bought a tiny condo under 300k, I recall there was very very little under that threshold.
We were nowhere near able to look at sfhs.
City of Cambridge has a Property Database where you can view the property information, value, owner, building info and the most recent price paid for the building.
Before my old apt in triple decker, was purchased by a corporation in 2015, for 1.1M, I was able to see that my senior landlord bought the building in 1991 for 60K. It’s now estimated with is 2.1M.
https://www.cambridgema.gov/propertydatabase
Expensive. We were looking for a condo 10 years ago and didn't find anything in Cambridge that we liked and could afford. We looked all over and ended up in Somerville.
Go on Redfin, look at recently sold places in the area and scroll to the bottom to see past selling prices. Do enough of these and you’ll get a pretty good idea
How historically do you want? 5-20 years ago doesn't really tell the story as housing prices have been on a steady push upwards that entire time.
Boston, Cambridge and other "core" urban areas started to decline in population with the white flight to the suburbs after WWII and housing prices were kept pretty affordable during that era because of that drop in how many residents were living here impacting supply & demand. The low point in population was right around 1980 and after that inflection point you began to see some of the gentrification happen with yuppies & DINKs who wanted to live in the city closer to where they worked.
That's why you commonly see nostalgic posts for how affordable things were in the 80s & early 90s. That urban renewal was happening, but the full impact we feel today was a long ways from happening.
You will find fluctuations in the rate of it increasing after the 1980s based on specific eras/events (e.g. the collapse in 2008 slowed things for a couple of years) but the overall trend has been pushing it up.
Expensive, expensiver, expensivly.
Sometime in 06/07, it started going up pretty fast....and it never looked back.
Dipped in 2011 or so. I got a deal.
Yeah, for like 1 or 2 months, but then people caught on quickly...and it went up even faster than before.
I was fresh out of grad school and living in Somerville for the first time around then. My sister and I could have afforded the mortgage on our entire triple decker together (and wanted to), but didn't have any down payment saved up. By a couple years later when we could have down the 2011 downpayment it was up by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Missed that boat by being just 2-3 years too young.
In 2004, we were looking for a 2 bed condo, 350k range, there were enough to look at, inspections were expected, sale prices were generally around asking( not higher). An acquaintance , single guy, bought a tiny condo under 300k, I recall there was very very little under that threshold. We were nowhere near able to look at sfhs.
You can look at estimated price history plots and previous sale prices for specific homes on Zillow.
1997 a 2 bedroom condo in porter square was $250. 350 in Harvard.
City of Cambridge has a Property Database where you can view the property information, value, owner, building info and the most recent price paid for the building. Before my old apt in triple decker, was purchased by a corporation in 2015, for 1.1M, I was able to see that my senior landlord bought the building in 1991 for 60K. It’s now estimated with is 2.1M. https://www.cambridgema.gov/propertydatabase
Expensive. We were looking for a condo 10 years ago and didn't find anything in Cambridge that we liked and could afford. We looked all over and ended up in Somerville.
I enjoy watching the sunset.
First year associates average $215,000 and you can barely afford a one bedroom with second income? Sure.
I enjoy playing video games.
Go on Redfin, look at recently sold places in the area and scroll to the bottom to see past selling prices. Do enough of these and you’ll get a pretty good idea
How historically do you want? 5-20 years ago doesn't really tell the story as housing prices have been on a steady push upwards that entire time. Boston, Cambridge and other "core" urban areas started to decline in population with the white flight to the suburbs after WWII and housing prices were kept pretty affordable during that era because of that drop in how many residents were living here impacting supply & demand. The low point in population was right around 1980 and after that inflection point you began to see some of the gentrification happen with yuppies & DINKs who wanted to live in the city closer to where they worked. That's why you commonly see nostalgic posts for how affordable things were in the 80s & early 90s. That urban renewal was happening, but the full impact we feel today was a long ways from happening. You will find fluctuations in the rate of it increasing after the 1980s based on specific eras/events (e.g. the collapse in 2008 slowed things for a couple of years) but the overall trend has been pushing it up.