Zero inventory might not be the hurdle you face in trying to buy a small multi in several other blue chip Boston neighborhoods, but you might find it challenging keeping a poker face when you hear their median prices.

In Back Bay, only two small multis sold in the first 10 months of 2013 and the median price was $3.46 million.

In the South End, 10 small multis sold and the median topped $2 million.

And you might not think of Mission Hill as a million-dollar market, but it is! A small multi in this student neighborhood can generate $100,000 in gross rent and its median price in the first 10 months of the year was $1.3 million.

Even Cambridge, which scored nearly 60 small multi sales in the first 10 months of the year, is just a few nails short of becoming a million-dollar small multi market. The Cambridge median price: $995K.

Million-dollar markets and small multi families didn’t always go together like peanut butter and chocolate.

Between 2001 and 2005, small multis flourished and in 2005 the median sales price for a small multi listed anywhere on MLS was $380,000 and in Boston, it was $520,000. But in 2007, the sales volume dropped around 40 percent, while the market wide price dropped to $320,000. Even Boston’s median dropped nearly 15 percent to $455K. Kevin McGoff, currently a sales manager for Sage Bank, says “Financing definitely played a huge role in the decline here.” Recalling the ease with which small multi buyers could get funding in those days and the impact when the requirements changed, he says, “We used to offer stated income, no doc, no asset verification on all of these loans prior to 2007 and the ramifications of not being able to finance new potential buyers had a big impact on the price of the properties.” Considering a worldwide financial meltdown occurred shortly thereafter, it wasn’t surprising to see that the median market wide sales price of a small multi in 2009 dropped to $180,000 and in Boston the median was down to $265,000. At around minus 50 percent since 2005, small multis had lost a bigger percentage of value than stocks.

In 2010, despite the challenging financing options for buyers – including a huge increase in the necessary down payment – as well as a glut of short sales and foreclosures (about one out of every three small multi sales in Boston) to burn through, the small multi market started to appreciate again. And since 2011, whoever is driving the appreciation, has the pedal to the medal.

 Average Sale Price Up

While the average sales price for an MLS listed small multi in 2009 was $180,000, today it is $267,000. In Boston, the 2009 median was $265,000 and today it is $430,000. Up 48 percent and 62 percent, these markets are still significantly below their 2005 highs, but in some other markets, today’s medians have eclipsed 2005 pricing. Markets like Brookline, Cambridge, Charlestown, Jamaica Plain, Somerville and South Boston are all way ahead of their seemingly epic 2005 medians.

Clearly, many investors and owner occupants are priced out of Boston’s most valuable neighborhoods. Where are they buying small multis instead?

Certainly, one favorite option has been Dorchester, a market which typically makes up nearly 40 percent of Boston’s small multi sales. In two short years, Dorchester’s median small multi sale has gone from $300,000 to $400,000. Ron Ifrah, an investor who has aggressively pursued Dorchester properties for the last several years, says that this market is ”very hard” and that it’s tough to compete with “lots of first-time investors that drive up the price, and owner-occupied, which you just can’t compete with.”

East Boston is another hot Boston neighborhood for small multis. This year, East Boston has only about one-third of the small multi sales it sported in the first 10 months of 2009, but median pricing has gone from $222,000 to $363,000 since 2009, a 63 percent increase. Paul Marks, who has been developing and buying income property in East Boston over this time period, says he is getting as much as $1,950 and $2,200 a month in rent for newly constructed two bedrooms, and up to $2,750 for three bedroom duplexes. He says that his East Boston apartments attract professionals working downtown.

Of several sizable markets outside of Boston that have middling price points, such as Revere, Chelsea and Malden, Everett might be the most changed. In first 10 months of 2011, only two Everett sales were over $400,000, but 44 sales were over $400,000 in the first 10 months this year. Jackie Forman, a top agent in Everett, has had as many as 60 people at a multifamily open house and doesn’t feel buyers are gambling on a casino going into Everett. Forman says that a lot of the Everett small multi buyers intending to be owner-occupants are being priced out of the surrounding neighborhoods. In a recent six-offer situation, five of the buyers were from Somerville – all prospective owner-occupants.

Some might think it the land of the bean and cod, but it’s the market of the triple-decker.

David Bates is a broker with Gibson/ Sotheby’s International Realty and author of The Bates Real Estate Blog, www.BatesRealEstateReport.com.