The S&P Case Shiller Boston Home Price Index has risen steadily since February 2020. The index measures changes in the prices of existing single-family homes. The index value was equal to 100 as of January 2000, so if the index value is equal to 130 in a given month, for example, it means that the house prices have increased by 30 percent since 2000. The value of the S&P Case Shiller Boston Home Price Index amounted to nearly 335.36 in August 2024. That was above the national average.

Graph and download economic data for Housing Inventory: Median Listing Price per Square Feet in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (CBSA) (MEDLISPRIPERSQUFEE14460) from Jul 2016 to Feb 2025 about Boston, NH, MA, square feet, listing, median, price, and USA.

The average price per square foot of floor space in new single-family housing in the United States decreased after the great financial crisis, followed by several years of stagnation. Since 2012, the price has continuously risen, hitting 168 U.S. dollars per square foot in 2022. In 2024, the average sales price of a new home exceeded 500,000 U.S. dollars. Development of house sales in the U.S. One of the reasons for rising property prices is the gradual growth of house sales between 2011 and 2020. This period was marked by the gradual recovery following the subprime mortgage crisis and a growing housing sentiment. Another significant factor for the housing demand was the growing number of new household formations each year. Despite this trend, housing transactions plummeted in 2021, amid soaring prices and borrowing costs. In 2021, the average construction cost for single-family housing rose by nearly 12 percent year-on-year, and in 2022, the increase was even higher, at close to 17 percent. Financing a house purchase Mortgage interest rates in the U.S. rose dramatically in 2022 and remained elevated until 2024. In 2020, a homebuyer could lock in a 30-year fixed interest rate of under three percent, whereas in 2024, the average rate for the same mortgage type was more than twice higher. That has led to a decline in homebuyer sentiment, and an increasing share of the population pessimistic about buying a home in the current market.

Graph and download economic data for Housing Inventory: Median Listing Price Year-Over-Year in Massachusetts (MEDLISPRIYYMA) from Jul 2017 to Feb 2025 about MA, listing, median, price, and USA.

The U.S. housing market continues to evolve, with the median home price forecast to reach 426,000 U.S. dollars by the second quarter of 2026. This projection comes after a period of significant growth and recent fluctuations, reflecting the complex interplay of economic factors affecting the real estate sector. The rising costs have not only impacted home prices, but also down payments, with the median down payment more than doubling since 2012. Regional variations in housing costs Home prices and down payments vary dramatically across the United States. While the national median down payment stood at approximately 26,700 U.S. dollars in early 2024, homebuyers in states like California, Massachusetts, and Hawaii faced down payments exceeding 74,000 U.S. dollars. This disparity highlights the challenges of homeownership in high-cost markets and underscores the importance of location in determining housing affordability. Market dynamics and future outlook The housing market has shown signs of cooling after years of rapid growth, with more modest price increases of 4.8 percent in 2022 and 6.5 percent in 2023. This slowdown can be attributed in part to rising mortgage rates, which have tempered demand. Despite these challenges, most states continued to see year-over-year price growth in the fourth quarter of 2023, with Rhode Island and Vermont leading the pack at over 13 percent appreciation. As the market adjusts to new economic realities, potential homebuyers and investors alike will be watching closely for signs of stabilization or renewed growth in the coming years.

The U.S. housing market has slowed, after 13 consecutive years of rising home prices. In 2021, house prices surged by an unprecedented 18 percent, marking the highest increase on record. However, the market has since cooled, with the Freddie Mac House Price Index showing more modest growth between 2022 and 2024. In 2024, home prices increased by 4.2 percent. That was lower than the long-term average of 4.4 percent since 1990. Impact of mortgage rates on homebuying The recent cooling in the housing market can be partly attributed to rising mortgage rates. After reaching a record low of 2.96 percent in 2021, the average annual rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage more than doubled in 2023. This significant increase has made homeownership less affordable for many potential buyers, contributing to a substantial decline in home sales. Despite these challenges, forecasts suggest a potential recovery in the coming years. How much does it cost to buy a house in the U.S.? In 2023, the median sales price of an existing single-family home reached a record high of over 389,000 U.S. dollars. Newly built homes were even pricier, despite a slight decline in the median sales price in 2023. Naturally, home prices continue to vary significantly across the country, with West Virginia being the most affordable state for homebuyers.

Analysis of ‘Boston House Prices-Advanced Regression Techniques’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/fedesoriano/the-boston-houseprice-data on 13 February 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

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Context

The Boston house-price data of Harrison, D. and Rubinfeld, D.L. 'Hedonic prices and the demand for clean air', J. Environ. Economics & Management, vol.5, 81-102, 1978.

Attribute Information

Input features in order: 1) CRIM: per capita crime rate by town 2) ZN: proportion of residential land zoned for lots over 25,000 sq.ft. 3) INDUS: proportion of non-retail business acres per town 4) CHAS: Charles River dummy variable (1 if tract bounds river; 0 otherwise) 5) NOX: nitric oxides concentration (parts per 10 million) [parts/10M] 6) RM: average number of rooms per dwelling 7) AGE: proportion of owner-occupied units built prior to 1940 8) DIS: weighted distances to five Boston employment centres 9) RAD: index of accessibility to radial highways 10) TAX: full-value property-tax rate per $10,000 [$/10k] 11) PTRATIO: pupil-teacher ratio by town 12) B: The result of the equation B=1000(Bk - 0.63)^2 where Bk is the proportion of blacks by town 13) LSTAT: % lower status of the population

Output variable: 1) MEDV: Median value of owner-occupied homes in $1000's [k$]

Source

StatLib - Carnegie Mellon University

Relevant Papers

Harrison, David & Rubinfeld, Daniel. (1978). Hedonic housing prices and the demand for clean air. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 5. 81-102. 10.1016/0095-0696(78)90006-2. LINK

Belsley, David A. & Kuh, Edwin. & Welsch, Roy E. (1980). Regression diagnostics: identifying influential data and sources of collinearity. New York: Wiley LINK

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Graph and download economic data for S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller MA-Boston Home Price Index (BOXRSA) from Jan 1987 to Dec 2024 about Boston, NH, MA, HPI, housing, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

West Virginia and Kansas had the lowest cost of living across all U.S. states, with composite costs being half of those found in Hawaii. This was according to a composite index that compares prices for various goods and services on a state-by-state basis. In West Virginia, the cost of living index amounted to 84.8 - well below the national benchmark of 100. Nevada - which had an index value of 100.1 - was only slightly above that benchmark. Expensive places to live included Hawaii, Massachusetts, and California Housing costs in the U.S. Housing is usually the highest expense in a household’s budget. In 2023, the average house sold for approximately 427,000 U.S. dollars, but house prices in the Northeast and West regions were significantly higher. Conversely, the South had some of the least expensive housing. In West Virginia, Mississippi, and Louisiana, the median price of the typical single-family home was less than 200,000 U.S. dollars. That makes living costs in these states significantly lower than in states such as Hawaii and California, where housing is much more expensive. What other expenses affect the cost of living? Utility costs such as electricity, natural gas, water, and internet also influence the cost of living. In Alaska, Hawaii, and Connecticut, the average monthly utility cost exceeded 500 U.S. dollars. That was because of the significantly higher prices for electricity and natural gas in these states.

Graph and download economic data for Housing Inventory: Median Listing Price per Square Feet Year-Over-Year in Middlesex County, MA (MEDLISPRIPERSQUFEEYY25017) from Jul 2017 to Feb 2025 about Middlesex County, MA; Boston; MA; square feet; listing; median; price; and USA.

The Back Bay district was the most expensive real estate market for office space in Boston in the third quarter of 2024. On average, the average asking rent was about 69 U.S. dollars per square foot of office space. Downtown Boston, the market with the largest inventory of office space among Boston districts, had the second highest rent, at about 68 U.S. dollars. The gross rental rate usually includes costs for utilities and other general maintenance expenses.

The median rent for one- and two-bedroom apartments in Boston, Massachusetts, amounted to about 2,302 U.S. dollars by the end of 2023. Rents decreased slightly after the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic,this trend reversed in 2021 and as of December 2023, the annual rental growth stood at 3.32 percent. Among the different states in the U.S., Massachusetts ranks as one of the most expensive rental markets.

Graph and download economic data for Housing Inventory: Median Listing Price Month-Over-Month in Suffolk County, MA (MEDLISPRIMM25025) from Jul 2017 to Feb 2025 about Suffolk County, MA; Boston; MA; listing; median; price; and USA.

This statistic presents the boroughs with the most expensive median rentals of 2-bedroom apartments in Boston in 2015, by borough. In that year, the apartment rental costs in Boston in the Chinatown/Leather District amounted to 4,550 U.S. dollars per month.

In the last quarter of 2024, San Francisco, New York, and Honolulu were some of the U.S. cities with the highest housing construction costs. Meanwhile, Phoenix had one of the lowest construction costs for high-end multifamily homes at 280 U.S. dollars per square foot and Las Vegas for single-family homes between 235 and 470 U.S. dollars per square foot. Construction cost disparities As seen here, the construction cost for a high-end multi-family home in San Francisco in the first quarter of 2024 was over twice more expensive than in Phoenix. Meanwhile, there were also great differences in the cost of building a single-family house in New York and in Portland or Seattle. Some factors that may cause these disparities are the construction materials, installation, and composite costs, differing land values, wages, etc. For example, although the price of construction materials in the U.S. was rising at a slower level than in 2022 and 2023, several materials that are essential in most construction projects had growth rates of over five percent in 2024. Growing industry revenue Despite the economic uncertainty and other challenges, the size of the private construction market in the U.S. rose during the past years. It is important to consider that supply and demand for housing influences the revenue of this segment of the construction market. On the supply side, single-family home construction fell in 2023, but it is expected to rise in 2024 and 2025. On the demand side, some of the U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest sale prices of single-family homes were located in California, with San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara at the top of the ranking.

There is more to housing affordability than the rent or mortgage you pay. Transportation costs are the second-biggest budget item for most families, but it can be difficult for people to fully factor transportation costs into decisions about where to live and work. The Location Affordability Index (LAI) is a user-friendly source of standardized data at the neighborhood (census tract) level on combined housing and transportation costs to help consumers, policymakers, and developers make more informed decisions about where to live, work, and invest. Compare eight household profiles (see table below) —which vary by household income, size, and number of commuters—and see the impact of the built environment on affordability in a given location while holding household demographics constant.*$11,880 for a single person household in 2016 according to US Dept. of Health and Human Services: https://aspe.hhs.gov/computations-2016-poverty-guidelinesThis layer is symbolized by the percentage of housing and transportation costs as a percentage of income for the Median-Income Family profile, but the costs as a percentage of income for all household profiles are listed in the pop-up:Also available is a gallery of 8 web maps (one for each household profile) all symbolized the same way for easy comparison: Median-Income Family, Very Low-Income Individual, Working Individual, Single Professional, Retired Couple, Single-Parent Family, Moderate-Income Family, and Dual-Professional Family.An accompanying story map provides side-by-side comparisons and additional context.--Variables used in HUD's calculations include 24 measures such as people per household, average number of rooms per housing unit, monthly housing costs (mortgage/rent as well as utility and maintenance expenses), average number of cars per household, median commute distance, vehicle miles traveled per year, percent of trips taken on transit, street connectivity and walkability (measured by block density), and many more.To learn more about the Location Affordability Index (v.3) visit: https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/location-affordability-index/. There you will find some background and an FAQ page, which includes the question:"Manhattan, San Francisco, and downtown Boston are some of the most expensive places to live in the country, yet the LAI shows them as affordable for the typical regional household. Why?" These areas have some of the lowest transportation costs in the country, which helps offset the high cost of housing. The area median income (AMI) in these regions is also high, so when costs are shown as a percent of income for the typical regional household these neighborhoods appear affordable; however, they are generally unaffordable to households earning less than the AMI.Date of Coverage: 2012-2016 Date Released: March 2019Date Downloaded from HUD Open Data: 4/18/19Further Documentation:LAI Version 3 Data and MethodologyLAI Version 3 Technical Documentation

Homebuyers in the top 10 U.S. states with the highest median down payment for a home purchase had to pay more than double the median for the country in the first quarter of 2024. California, Massachusetts, and Hawaii were the states with the highest down payments in the United States, with median deposits for a home purchase exceeding 74,000 U.S. dollars. Nationwide, the median down payment was approximately 26,700 U.S. dollars. The rapid house price increase since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, has led to homebuyers needing to set aside a larger deposit. Additionally, a higher down payment allows borrowers to secure lower monthly payments.

In 2024, households in California needed an hourly wage of over 47 U.S. dollars to afford the rent of a two-bedroom apartment. Massachusetts had the second-least affordable two-bedroom apartments, as a household would have to earn at least around 45 U.S. dollars per hour in order to afford rent payments. These figures are considerably higher than the average minimum wage in place in many states. There was no state in which a minimum wage worker could afford rent for the average two-bedroom apartment, if they only worked 40 hours a week. Where are the least affordable counties and metros? The least affordable rents were predominately in Californian counties and metropolitan areas in 2024. District of Columbia has one of the highest minimum wages in the country, which stood at 17 U.S. dollars per hour as of January 2024. Thus, the affordability of two-bedroom apartments highlights how disproportionately high housing costs are in the state.

The monthly median asking rent for unfurnished apartments in the United States declined by about 74 U.S. dollars between in 2023. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the median rent amounted to 1,751 U.S. dollars, down from 1,825 U.S. dollars in 2022. This decrease followed a decade of steady growth, interrupted only in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. rental market As rental apartment vacancy rates fall, rents are on the rise. This makes it more difficult for Americans to, first, find an apartment to rent, and second, find an apartment which they can afford. Nevertheless, renting has become much more common in recent years, with the number of renter households having substantially increased in the past two decades. In 2023, there were approximately 45 million renter households in the U.S. Rents in different states Of course, rents vary from state to state. The most expensive rents are found in Hawaii, California, District of Colombia, New Jersey, and Florida. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, growth was the strongest in the Sun Belt states, and especially in states with lower costs of living, such as Texas. In Austin, TX, the average rent soared by nearly 26 percent in 2021, and remained elevated, despite a slight decline in 2023.

In 2020, Nantucket, Massachusetts, had the most expensive vacation homes with the median sales price reaching 2.3 million U.S. dollars. Another Massachusetts county, Barnstable, ranked third with the median vacation home selling for 475,000 U.S. dollars.