Just call them Greater Boston’s Teflon towns, where occasional dips in home prices just never seem to stick.
In fact, prices in some of the toniest addresses in the Boston area never really fell – and in some cases have even risen – from their peak at the height of the real estate bubble in 2005, according to data from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, featured in Boston Magazine’s recent annual Best Places to Live issue.
And as the long-dreaded double dip in home values gains momentum, those upscale towns everyone loves to hate but would secretly love to live in – Wellesley and Cambridge come to mind – are poised to ride out another storm.
It may seem unfair, but the real estate rich are only likely to get richer over the next few years while the rest of the market takes another step down.
You don’t even have to believe me – just look at the numbers.
Many middle-class towns and inner city neighborhoods have gotten clobbered by falling prices over the last half decade, with values cascading anywhere from 15 percent in Franklin to nearly 40 percent in Mattapan.
Now the fun is just getting started all over again. Home prices, after a brief stabilization in 2009 and early 2010, began tumbling again after the homebuyer tax credit expired last spring.
Basically, when the federal government stopped handing out $8,000 checks, buyers suddenly got scarce.
December saw the median sale price of single-family homes in the Bay State tumble nearly 6 percent year-over-year to $277,676, The Warren Group reported. In January, single-family home prices fell still farther, to $270,000.
But if you own a home in always-trendy Cambridge, Beacon Hill or in picturesque Manchester along the North Shore, you might just wonder what all the fuss is about.
Buying The Best
While homes in less illustrious zip codes languish on the market, there is always a long line of deep-pocketed financial executives, tech gurus and corporate lawyers ready to put down big money to buy into the “best towns.”
Cambridge home prices have soared 13 percent since 2005, with the median sale price now up to $755,500. Essex prices are up 5 percent over the same period. The median price in Manchester, at $750,250, is nearly tied with Cambridge after a 3 percent bump.
But that’s nothing compared to the stunning appreciation the wealthy – albeit small – band of homeowners in downtown Boston neighborhoods like Back Bay and Beacon Hill have seen. Single-family homes in these neighborhoods rocketed nearly 60 percent in value, to more than $2.1 million, since 2005.
And there is an even longer list of towns that have either seen values hold or decline ever so slightly since the market’s peak.
Brookline, with a median sale price of $1.1 million, is down a mere 1 percent, while Newton is holding strong at $735,000, or just 3 percent below the peak of a few years ago.
Moving deeper into the pricey western suburbs, Belmont, at just under $700,000, is down 3 percent. Lexington, at $694,250, is an almost insignificant 2 percent shy of its 2005 peak.
And of course we can’t forget Wellesley – the median price hit $900,000 after rising 6 percent in 2010 compared to 2009.
Other towns that have seen home prices decline by 7 percent or less include Cohasset, Hingham, Bedford, Sherborn, Arlington, Medfield and Milton.
OK, now I am beating a dead horse. Unless you just got off the plane from Kansas City and can’t figure out Wellesley from Worcester, I think you get the point.
The richer the real estate in your town, the better off you are.
And you forget worrying about the double dip – that’s for the poor schleps in Woburn, Everett and Revere to deal with.
