May 30, 2008

Brookline Conquers a Down Market

facilitypic1b Brookline Conquers a Down Market

Lucky Brookline. While prices of single-family homes have dropped 12 percent in Massachusetts, Brookline’s home prices have only managed to rise. Twenty percent no less! (That’s according to the professionals, as a layman observer I have my doubts about that.)

How can that be, you may ask? Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, homes in or near downtown areas have held their value as housing prices in distant suburbs tank. The WSJ even mentions Brookline by name. Nobody feels like shelling out gas money for a long commute. Others offer the good schools argument.  Housing prices just don’t fall in neighborhoods where schools are strong. And of course, because Brookline is an affluent place, it has not been hit by a surge in foreclosures the way other towns have. In short, when you venture out to these Brookline open houses this weekend, you can worry about whether a property has parking, new windows or an energy-efficient boiler, but you don’t have to worry about whether you’ll lose your shirt buying in a down market.

150 Salisbury Road, #2, $299K
BEDS:1/BATHS:1
SQ.FT: 593
O.H. Sunday, June 1, 2008 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

 3 Englewood Avenue, #1, $299,900
BEDS:1/BATHS:1
SQ.FT: 572
O.H. Sunday, June 1, 2008 11:30 PM – 1:00 PM

45 Mason Terrace, #2, $412K
BEDS:2/BATHS:1
SQ.FT: 800
O.H. Sunday, June 1, 2008 11:00 PM – 1:00 PM

41 Park Street, #205, $478,999
BEDS:2/BATHS:2
SQ.FT: 1,162
O.H. Sunday, June 1, 2008 12:15 PM – 2:00 PM


  • Pam
    Great point! These statistical reports should be approached cautiously --- they never tell the whole story. (TWENTY PERCENT rise? Ridiculous!) But as a casual observer, I do think Brookline prices have held steady. In respect to surrounding communities, Brookline’s just got too much going for it to see any kind of an appreciable drop in housing values.
  • bikes2work
    The reported price drops (12% in MA) and rises (in Brookline) are both MEDIAN values. Statistically speaking, using the median is a horrible way of measuring house prices. If the mix of sales changes from month to month (as it absolutely does) then the median is almost worthless.

    Much better to use Case-Shiller or OFHEO, which track repeat sales of the same homes. Unfortunately these measures are only available on a city by city basis, not for towns like Brookline, so we're basically left to filter the data ourselves.
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