Boston Real Estate Market Trends: A Comparison with Other Major Metros

Whether you own or rent residential Boston real estate, you certainly have heard about – and experienced to some degree – the various issues that have arisen in the past years in regard to the Boston real estate market. One factor that is important to understand is how the Boston real estate market has managed in comparison with other major metropolitan markets in the United States. In contrasting the Boston real estate market with five other active and significant real estate markets in the country, the results are illuminating and interesting.

The markets with which the Boston real estate market is contrasted with are Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Miami. Of course, all of these real estate markets have enjoyed ups and downs and a variety of different challenges. Perhaps the most important way of analyzing these different markets is to consider how significant the swings (up and down) in property valuation have been over the course of an extended period of time. With this in mind, in looking at these real estate markets from 1987 until the current time, the Miami real estate market has been the most volatile (by far) when contrasted with the other cities.

Next in line in regard to overall volatility during this time period is the Los Angeles real estate market. The Boston real estate market is the most stable of these six different real estate markets over this twenty year plus period of time. Of course, as is the case across the United States, during the past few years even the Boston real estate market has experienced challenges – however, nothing as severe as has been seen in Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City. Chicago has experienced a trajectory not unlike Boston – both in the past few years and during the overall twenty year plus period of time reviewed.