Triple-deckers stand opposite the Shawmut Red Line station in Boston’s Dorchester Neighborhood in September 2025. Observers expect the state’s condo market to receive more inventory in 2026. Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman Staff / File
The Massachusetts condominium market saw a big jump in buyer activity in 2025, and 2026 could see continued opportunities for buyers, real estate agents say.
There were 1,627 condominium sales statewide in December 2025 according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, a 9.4 percent increase year-over-year.
The monthly median condo sale price actually decreased 2.1 percent on a year over-year basis to $510,000. And the annual median condo sale price remained essentially unchanged, only increasing by $2,000 to $537,000.
Greater Boston Real Estate board chair Dino Confalone noted that sellers realized that the aggressive pricing seen in prior years was no longer viable.
“If you didn’t price it right, days on market would accumulate, and therefore you would have to chase the market,” the Cambridge-based Gibson Sotheby’s Realtor said. “Most of them end up selling anyway but I think there was definitely that factor that was filtering through to the data showing that there was a price drop. There definitely are deals to be had.”
Pricing Pressures Falling
Condominiums have historically offered a more affordable option for buyers who aren’t set on a single-family home in the suburbs.
Even though the median condo sale price is higher than the median single-family sale price at the end of 2021, and over 18 percent higher than the median condo sale price for that year, the inventory picture will likely make condos a particularly affordable option for many buyers this spring, said Boston-based Coldwell Banker agent Ricardo Rodriguez.
Beginning in March and continuing through November, the number of condos on the market at any one time made big jumps year-on-year – as high as 29.9 percent in May, Massachusetts Association of Realtors data shows.
Affordability is improving, said Zillow Senior Economist Kara Ng.
“Boston’s condo market is entering 2026 at record-high price levels, but the pace [of price increases] has finally cooled,” Ng said. “The pressure is easing enough to give incomes some much-needed runway to catch up. That kind of deceleration doesn’t feel dramatic, but it’s exactly how affordability starts to heal in expensive, supply-constrained markets like Boston.”
Somerville Porchfest attendees stand in front of a pair of homes in the city in 2024. The city’s annual median condominium sale price fell from $900,000 in 2024 to $875,000 in 2025. iStock photo
Sellers Must Offer Concessions
With buyers and sellers seeing interest rates trend downwards, more condos hit the market and buyers could be patient and more selective, Rodriguez said.
“There has been an increase in inventory, so I think that people have more options,” he said. “The interest rates are what they are. The 2 percent and 3 percent [mortgage rates] are as much a unicorn as the 18 percent of yesteryear. I do think it is a normalization of the market that happened in 2025. We got to the point in which sellers understood these are not markets for artificial pricing.”
Buyers now have time to seek out a property that has most or all of their requested features. In the days of high levels of competition and demand, buyers simply didn’t have the time to wait.
“People are seeing as many properties as they can before coming to terms on what they want to purchase, and in order for them to move forward, there needs to be some sort of give from the seller,” said Matt Aranson, a principal of the South Boston-based Aranson Maguire Group at Compass. “Whether that’s paying condo fees, which continue to go up drastically year over year, leaving furniture, whatever it may be. We definitely have to prepare our sellers that it’s a true negotiation.”
While the inventory gains are welcome in a state that has been severely lacking in housing options, the effects might not last for long. The real estate agents interviewed for this story believe that buyers ate into the inventory gains made earlier in the year. The Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported that condominium inventory dropped in December by 4.2 percent year-on-year.
Rodriguez believes that more buyers will enter the market in 2026 due to condo prices appreciating at normal levels rather than shooting upwards.
“I think that a lot of buyers are seeing this as a time of opportunity,” Again, not to get a deal, but to get something that is real fair market value.”
Sam Lattof
Politics, Foreign Buyers a Concern
Real estate professionals expect some positive momentum in 2026 but the year will not be without challenges, especially in the market’s highest end.
Due to the types of industries in Boston and its sizable higher education sector, a lot of international buyers can flock to Greater Boston. Foreign buyers purchased $56 billion worth of U.S. existing homes from April 2024 through March 2025, according to a National Association of Realtors 2025 report. Greater Boston ranks 15th in the nation with 1.2 percent of all homebuyers being international, according to Realtor.com research.
It’s unclear whether that share fell last year as the Trump administration ramped up its tariff war and made international headlines for harsh immigration measures and arresting international students who criticized Israel. But brokers and agents interviewed for this story suggested one possible barometer: the number of international students in the country.
Massachusetts welcomed 82,000 international students in 2024 according to The Boston Foundation, the most recent data available, but the New York Times reported that the number of international students arriving in the U.S. in August 2025 fell by 19 percent year-over-year, the largest decline on record outside of the pandemic.
“My first international buyer over the last decade has now turned around, is selling and moving back to China because they don’t like what they’re seeing,” the Greater Boston Real Estate Board Chair said. “I’m sure other Realtors are feeling it. There’s definitely a fear.”
