Two townhouses in Boston’s Back Bay sold for more than $6 million during the first half of 2003, including one at 196 Commonwealth Ave. (pictured), which traded for $6.9 million.

Sales of condominiums and single-family homes may have slipped in Boston’s desirable Back Bay and Beacon Hill neighborhoods during the first half of the year compared to a year ago, but don’t expect any bargains soon.

More higher-priced condominiums were sold this year than during the first half of 2002, and two Back Bay townhouses have already sold for more than $6 million this year, exceeding the highest price – $4.8 million – that a buyer paid for a single-family home in Boston during all of last year.

That came despite a dismal first quarter when residential real estate sales stalled because of the inclement weather and Iraqi conflict.

“This year has been extremely strong in the high-end market,” said Tracy Campion, a broker with RM Bradley & Co. in Boston. “Buyers are out there and they’re spending money.”

“We had a very quiet first quarter that was primarily due to the weather,” said Ken Tuntunjian, sales manager of two Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage offices in Boston. However, Tuntunjian said activity and interest at open houses in recent weeks has been brisk, and that the low mortgage interest rates have been a key boost to the market.

“People are seeing a better return on their dollar in their real estate and they have better tax advantages in writing off interest than in their [investment] portfolio,” he said.

But condominium sales in the Back Bay, Beacon Hill and South End have dropped. Just how much, however, depends on how the sales figures are interpreted. The number of condo sales currently being categorized as closed transactions in 2003 in those neighborhoods totals 375 – a 54 percent drop from the 818 condos sold during the first half of 2002. But a closer look at statistics in LINK, a Boston multiple listing service, shows that another 474 condominiums went under agreement during that timeframe. A good portion of those sales ultimately may be recorded as having closed during the first two quarters, according to Tim Marsh, vice president of Marsh Properties in Boston, which could bump condo sales up to about 800, the same as last year at this time.

In Boston’s South End, 202 condo sales are currently categorized as completed in the first half of the year, compared to 395 in the first half of 2002. However, there are indications that the drop-off may not be as pronounced as those statistics indicate. Including homes put under agreement in the first half of the year, not just completed sales, 471 condos traded hands in that neighborhood through June this year. Those pending sales will likely push 2003 year-end sales figures closer to the pace set in 2002. However, even adding pending sales into the mix, the number of condo transactions in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill fell in the first half of 2003 compared to the same period last year.

Pricey Property

Sellers, however, are still getting top dollar, according to real estate agents. Marsh, vice president of Marsh Properties in Boston, noted that more condos priced between $2 million and $4 million have sold this year in the Back Bay than in 2002. Three condos sold for more than $4 million this year, while two falling into that category were sold during the first half of last year.

Sixteen condos priced between $2 and $3 million sold this year, compared to only 9 last year, Marsh said. In contrast, there has been a significant drop in sales in the $750,000 to $1 million range, with 12 sales to date this year compared to 24 during the first six month of 2002 year.

“There’s been a shift toward the upper end of the market,” said Marsh.

The highest priced condominiums sold during the first half of this year, penthouses at One Commonwealth Ave. and 9 Arlington St. in the Back Bay, fetched a whopping $5.5 million, slightly below the $5.7 million condo sale at the Le Jardin at 250 Boylston St., the highest sale posted during the same months a year ago. In the South End, the highest price for condos that sold during the first half of the year was $1.53 million, and on Beacon Hill, a condo on Anderson Street drew the highest selling price of $1.3 million.

According to Tuntunjian, the median selling price for condos sold in those three neighborhoods was about $424,000 – roughly 8 percent more than the $390,000 median selling price posted a year ago. That’s significantly higher than the median selling price for condos sold in all of Boston’s neighborhoods last year. The median condo price in all of Boston last year was $295,000, a 16.6 percent increase from the $253,000 median posted in 2001, according to The Warren Group, Banker & Tradesman’s parent company.

Meanwhile, 22 single-family homes sold during the first six months of the year in Back Bay, Beacon Hill and the South End, down from 29 during the same months in 2002. The median selling price was $1.65 million, according to statistics from LINK, just slightly higher than the median of last year. This year, however, two Back Bay townhouses sold in excess of $6 million. A home at 196 Commonwealth Ave. sold for $6.9 million and a home at on Marlborough St. sold for $6.1 million.

Those prices far exceed the median selling price for single-family homes sold last year in all of Boston, including neighborhoods like Jamaica Plain, Charlestown, Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan, which was $292,500. Last year’s median selling price was 14.7 percent higher than the median selling price of $255,000 in 2001, according to The Warren Group.

Statistics from The Warren Group, which collects sales information from the registries of deeds, shows that the median selling price for single-family homes in Boston, which includes the downtown area and neighborhoods extending beyond the Back Bay and Beacon Hill, like the Fenway for example, slipped 5 percent in 2002 compared to 2001. The median selling price for a single-family home in those neighborhoods was $1.33 million in 2002, down from $1.4 million the prior year.

Last year’s condo prices, however, held steady. In Boston, the median selling price for condos in 2002 was $369,000, up about 1 percent from the $365,000 median of 2001.

As for this year, real estate agents interviewed by Banker & Tradesman last week said they were not overly concerned about the city’s residential real estate market.

“I never expected to sell as much as I have this year,” said Campion, who noted that RM Bradley has had a “phenomenal year.”