Biggest Discounts March Update

Let’s have an update on where buyers are currently getting the biggest discount off the asking price. Our goal in sharing this data is to help potential buyers to know which neighborhoods are softer in terms of sale price discounts off list price, to better equip you when making an offer, and help you know where to look for potential bargains.

In the chart below, we have taken all sales data from the last two months in Redfin’s Boston service area and sorted it by zip code. We calculated the overall difference between the sale price and the list price. Note that this reflects the final list price, after all price drops in the listing. Any zips with fewer than ten sales are excluded from the top and bottom ten rankings, but interested readers may download the full data summary in Excel format (xls).

For a quick look at where a given zip code is located, just type it into the Redfin search box, or drop by the handy USNaviguide.com zip code map.

Here are the top ten zip codes with the largest overall discount:

Last month’s champ Roxbury (02119) slipped slightly, as the average discount dropped by nearly 50%, but moving it down to #3. In addition, the area-wide discount increased from 4.9% in December to 5.7% at the end of January.

Of the 497 sales we tracked in the 2-month period, just 19 homes sold for 20% or more off the asking price, while 59 homes sold for more than asking. Boston’s overall trend moved toward slightly larger discounts.