Where is the traditional epicenter of luxury living in Boston? Well, the Back Bay of course. As one of the oldest and most charming neighborhoods in America, Back Bay has its fair share of fanatics. Its Parisian style boulevards and brownstone based buildings gradually merge together with the so-called “high spine” of the city. This gives Back Bay a best of-all-worlds appeal and makes it an enviable place to call home. Anecdotally and from a data perspective, it continues to be the darling of the Boston housing scene.
With interest rates higher in late 2018, the rhetoric among industry insiders was suggesting a more difficult year for the real estate market. Though not all things are black and white, 2019 proved to be quite a year in Back Bay! When focusing on the luxury $2M+ market in 2019, there were 165 luxury sales in the larger Back Bay neighborhood totaling $826,279,172 in sales volume. The median $/SF of these sales is $1,976/SF, a WHOPPING 32% increase over the median in 2018.
Introducing One Dalton
The opening of Boston’s most anticipated residential offering, One Dalton, weighed heavily on this data. These new condominiums come with unparalleled service, amenities and views from Boston’s tallest residential building: 61 stories. The building offers four different styles of private living: Town Residences that occupy floors 26 to 43, Sky Residences that occupy floors 45 to 54, Penthouse Flats that occupy floors 55 to 59 and the Penthouse Estates that soar at floors 60 and 61.
The ongoing sellout of these 160 Four Seasons residences accounted for 74 of the 165 sales ($2M+) in Back Bay in 2019. Impressively, these sales have avoided public marketing efforts (MLS) with all sales occurring through their private sales center and direct advertising. All told, 82.22% of the 90 off-market sales in Back Bay in 2019 are attributed to One Dalton. If we remove the sales from One Dalton, the delta between the two years drops to 10% increase in median $/SF; still, a stunning year of growth across the neighborhood! Taken a step further, if we removed the sales at One Dalton from the median Back Bay pricing, the overall median price per square foot in the Back Bay would drop by 17% ($1,976/SF to $1,637/SF).
$2M+ One Dalton Sales Totals
Units Sold: 74 | Sales Volume: $423,405,354.00 | Average $/SF: $2,529.67 | Median $/SF: $2,485.33
It is worth mentioning that many of the original buyers in One Dalton bought shell units. These shell spaces require custom build outs adding to the lofty basis that these buyers are acquiring. All that to say, the sale prices available from public records may not be representative of the actual prices paid for these homes to be habitable.
Read our Boston Luxury Report for more in depth sales data from 2019.