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One measure of Massachusetts’ housing affordability crisis: Homeowners in its biggest metro area won’t – or can’t – move.
Through September, homes in Greater Boston turned over at a rate of 18.8 per 1,000 homes, a 5.9 percent decline from the same period in 2024 according to a new analysis by Refin. The 2025 rate is 13th in the nation among the 50 most populous U.S. metros.
The United States as a whole saw the rate of housing turnover reach the lowest rate since the 1990s.
“America’s housing market is defined right now by caution,” Redfin’s head of economics research Chen Zhao said in a statement. “Buyers are walking away from deals more often, sometimes due to affordability issues and sometimes because they’re re-evaluating whether now is the right moment to commit. Others aren’t even shopping, waiting instead for prices or mortgage rates to come down. On the other side, many sellers are staying put—either because they’re locked into low rates or unwilling to accept offers below expectations. When both sides hesitate, sales naturally fall to historic lows.”
According to The Warren Group, the publisher of Banker & Tradesman, the median single-family home price was $625,000 in September. Within the Interstate 495 beltway, the median single-family sale price was $769,000 last month, while the median condominium sale price was $580,000.
Massachusetts Association of Realtors data shows new listings of single-family homes were up 7.5 percent statewide last month on a year-over-year basis, while new condo listings were up 13.3 percent. Total inventory of single-families for sale was down 4.2 percent, while condo inventory was up 5.1 percent.
Across the country, just 28 out of every 1,000 U.S. homes changed hands in the first nine months of 2025, Redfin found. This year’s turnover rate (2.77 percent) was down from 2.78 percent in 2024, when existing home sales fell to the lowest level since 1995.
The rate of U.S. homes being listed for sale in the first nine months of the year rose to 3.9 percent. It was the third-slowest rate of homes being listed in records going back to 2012.
A separate analysis released this week by single-family and small multifamily rentals portal Point2Homes found similar dynamics in the statewide rental market. That report found Massachusetts renters move at the eighth-lowest rate in the nation.
