From cold to red hot, the real estate along the Marathon route
The 26.2 mile Boston Marathon dashes past some of the priciest real estate on the planet.
The race kicks off in middle class territory - Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham and Natick.
But as the runners cross the Natick line into Wellesley, the median home price immediately doubles. And as they hit their stride, the Marathon runners will find themselves gliding past some of the most expensive suburban and urban enclaves on earth before crossing the finish line at Copley Square, in the heart of downtown Boston's luxury home and condo market.
In towns like Ashland, Hopkinton and Natick, prices are settling back into solidly middle class territory after having flirted with the lower rungs of the high end market during the boom years.
But in Wellesley, Newton, Brookline and downtown Boston, prices are still stratospherically high and, if anything, taking a breather before the next sprint up.
Without further ado, here's my town-by-town real estate tour of the Marathon route. (All numbers are from The Warren Group, with the exception of Hopkinton, which I used Trulia for.)
- Hopkinton, where the big race begins, has seen home prices sink by more than 25 percent since last spring, to a new median of $334,500.
- Next up is Ashland, which once again is shaping up to be an alternative for middle class families priced out of towns and suburbs closer to Boston. Ashland has seen one of the steepest declines in home prices of any town along the Marathon route - a $115,000 plunge since last spring to a new median price of $365,013.
- Has Framingham hit bottom? The median home price has bobbed back up to $300,000 as the spring market kicks in, up from $289,000 last year. But the end of the home buyer tax credit has clearly hit home, with Framingham one of the few towns along the Marathon route with a big decrease of sales this spring - just under 20 percent.
- Natick, my hometown, saw prices soar well past the $400,000 mark before tumbling back to earth. The median home price has fallen to $352,000, down almost $100,000 from last year at this time, when it stood at $442,500. Lower prices, though, seem to be bringing out buyers - there have been 37 home sales to date this year, compared to 27 last year.
- Wellesley home prices have certainly come down from their overheated highs during the bubble years. But it is still more than double the cost to buy in Wellesley than in next door Natick, with a median home price of $807,400.
- Home prices in Newton edged up over the past year, even as the real estate market as a whole kicked into reverse with the end of the home buyer tax credit. The Garden City's median home price is $757,000 so far this spring, up about $34,000 from last year. The number of sales is up slightly, to 45 so far this year.
- The median home price in Brookline has dropped more than $150,000 since last spring. But when your median is $1.1 million, that's the cost of a kitchen renovation in one of the town's many gorgeous mansions.
- Real estate cycles come and go, but Copley Square/downtown Boston, the finish line for the Marathon, is an unaffordable as it ever was. There have been four single family homes sold so far this year in the Back Bay and its environs, with a whopping median of $2.9 million.
