The Fallon Company’s One Harbor Shore, shown here under construction in March, includes 122 luxury condos on Fan Pier’s final development parcel. Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman Staff
Nearing completion on Fan Pier, the One Harbor Shore condominium tower touts “the final opportunity to own a piece of Boston’s premier waterfront” to prospective buyers.
The buildout of the Seaport District’s final shoreline residential parcel is a selling point for its developer, The Fallon Company. The tagline also points to a signal moment for Boston’s luxury condo market that may benefit its competition: the finale of a once-powerful pipeline of luxury residential high-rises completed over the past decade.
Some of those properties are still marketing a sizable inventory of unsold units, at a time when sales volume has dropped significantly, especially in the entry-level segment of the market.
Inflation, elevated mortgage rates and the economic blows to Greater Boston’s life science, education and health care sectors have dampened demand in recent years.
“The market is shifting in two directions. What is really struggling, which is crazy, is the $500,000 to $2 million [segment] in the city,” said George Sarkis, co-founder and CEO of The Sarkis Team at Douglas Elliman in Boston. “It’s an interest-rate sensitive buyer, and mortgage rates continue to influence buyer psychology.”
Transaction Volume Continues Slide
The 2013 groundbreaking and 2016 grand opening of the 442-unit Millennium Boston tower in Downtown Crossing ushered in a decade of frothy luxury condo construction in downtown Boston, Back Bay and the emerging Seaport District totaling nearly 2,000 units.
According to data compiled by The Collaborative Companies, condo sales in Boston’s urban core topped 4,000 transactions every year from 2012 through 2020. Transactions peaked at 5,922 in 2021, when mortgage rates lingered around 3 percent, the low-water mark since government lender Freddie Mac began tracking weekly mortgage rates in 1971.
The 317-unit Winthrop Center tower had its busiest spring sales season since opening in 2023, according to developer Millennium Partners, but still has more than 160 condos available. Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman
After seven interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in 2022, however, sales volume dropped in each ensuing year, to a low of 3,496 transactions in 2025.
The downturn continued in early 2026, with just 598 sales recorded during the first quarter.
“With an entry-level buyer, when you do the math versus renting, things have started to flatline,” said Laura Gollinger, TCC’s senior vice president. “The math is still too much of a gap, even with the argument of building equity and the ownership component. That is where we need [mortgage] rates to come down below 6 percent.”
The Luxury of Many Choices
The fully-amenitized tower segment’s unsold inventory is giving buyers significant negotiating power, Sarkis said.
“If you want luxury and the amenities, you’ve got some really good options and it’s a good time to make a move,” he said.
Millennium Partners’ Winthrop Center skyscraper, which contains 317 condos, opened in May 2023. Through March, 42 percent of the units were sold at an average $2,155 per square foot.
MP Boston Partner Rich Baumert said the building is expected to have at least 154 total closings completed later this year, after its busiest spring sales season to date.
“We tend to build things larger, and I know our residents appreciate that,” Baumert said, alluding to the Financial District tower’s club-like atmosphere and extensive amenity package. “For the people who are attracted to this building, the majority fit the demographic of empty-nesters. The one thing no other building has is the sense of community, because of our programming.”
The St. Regis Residences, a Seaport District high-rise that opened in late 2022, continues to lag competitors with approximately 60 percent of its 114 units sold at average sales prices of $2,511 per square foot. Developer Jon Cronin’s penthouse, listed at $49.5 million in mid-2025, dropped its asking price to $44.5 million in February.
Across town over the same period, the Raffles Boston sold 96 percent of its 146 units at nearly $3,000 per square foot. Only a handful of its smaller pied-a-terre units are still on the market, developer Jordan Warshaw of Noannet Group said.
The 55-unit for-sale component of The Sudbury tower in Boston’s West End, which opened in 2021, was 73 percent sold out at the end of the first quarter at average prices of $1,990 per square foot, according to TCC data.
After One Harbor Shore’s scheduled completion this fall, just one boutique project will be under construction in the urban core: Boston Residential Group’s 29-unit 55 India St, seen here in May 2026. Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman
And Hines’ new South Station Tower has recorded sales on 34 of its 166 Ritz-Carlton-branded condos since opening last fall, according to public records.
Brokers say the high-end condo market has remained insulated from the sluggishness affecting entry-level units, creating a bifurcated market. A preponderance of cash sales inoculates the upper tier of the market from mortgage rate headwinds, driving up average prices in the luxury full-service building segment to nearly $1.6 million, Sarkis said.
Steve Adams
Fallon Ready to Unwrap Fan Pier Tower
The 122-unit One Harbor Shore tower has been marketing units ahead of its scheduled opening in early fall. The Fallon Company has held off on media tours thus far, but has been scheduling tours to prospective buyers in its pre-sale phase.
After One Harbor Shore’s scheduled completion this fall, just one boutique project will be under construction in the urban core: Boston Residential Group’s 29-unit 55 India St.
The pending sale of the Motor Mart Garage property – approved for 231 condos in a vertical expansion project that has failed to move forward since 2019 – leaves just 147 condos approved but yet to break ground in the urban core. The total includes Fortis Property Group’s 125-unit Dock Square garage expansion. Fortis did not respond to a request for comment.
The lack of major development means less competition for all of the recent-generation buildings seeking to sell out. Brokers estimate it will be at least five years before another major project could complete permitting and construction – if not longer.
