Boston, MA Housing Market 2026: What Homes Actually Sell For

Boston produces a steady stream of closings but little consensus: sales over the last six months span a range wide enough that the median is a midpoint between different markets, not a going rate. The distribution below matters more than the headline.

The snapshot

• •Closings tracked, last 6 months: 2,251
• •Median sold price, last 6 months: $915,000
• •Median sold $/sqft, last 6 months: $828
• •Middle half of sales closed between: $655,000 and $1,570,000

What the numbers say

Resideline tracked 2,251 closed sales in Boston over the last six months, with a median closing price of $915,000. That median is the midpoint of what buyers actually paid, not what sellers hoped to get, which is why it moves differently from the asking prices you see on listing sites. The middle half of those sales closed between $655,000 and $1,570,000. That spread matters more than the headline median: where a specific property sits inside it decides whether the citywide number helps you or misleads you. These are the closings Resideline tracks and may differ from complete county or municipal records. The large tracked sample provides substantial market-level evidence. Across the 2,244 closings with usable living area, the middle half sold between $573 and $1,182 per square foot.

Figures last updated August 22, 2026 from closings Resideline tracked.

Median home price in Boston, MA (August 2026)

The median home price in Boston is $915,000, measured across the 2,251 closed sales Resideline tracked over the last six months. The middle half of those sales closed between $655,000 and $1,570,000.

Where Boston sale prices land

Medians hide the shape of a market. The distribution above covers the closed sales Resideline tracked in Boston over the last six months, trimmed to the 5th through 95th percentile, with the middle half of sales closing between $655,000 and $1,570,000. Where your target property sits inside that spread matters more than the citywide median.

How long a sale takes here

• •Listed to under contract: a median of 26 days, across 669 Boston closings Resideline tracked in the last six months
• •Contract to closing: a median of 30 days, across 983 Boston closings Resideline tracked in the last six months

The Boston angle

Anyone pricing in Boston should treat the citywide median as a reference point with wide error bars around it. The spread across closed sales runs wider than most markets Resideline tracks. Across 2,251 closings Resideline tracked over the last six months, the median closed sale price was $915,000, and the middle half of sales closed between $655,000 and $1,570,000. More of that middle half sits above the median than below it, so upper-end subjects have room to run while still counting as ordinary sales.

What is being reported about the Boston market

The numbers above are what we measure from tracked closings. Alongside them, here is what local and national coverage is reporting, from the source:

• •Banker & Tradesman reported that only 15.1% of Boston-area homes on the market in July 2026 had a price cut (versus about 20% nationally, per Realtor.com), and that Greater Boston had 3,493 active listings in June 2026 per MLS PIN, an 8.8% year-over-year increase but still below the 4,319 listed in June 2019 (Banker & Tradesman (Realtor.com and MLS PIN data), Aug 16, 2026)
• •Banker & Tradesman reported, citing Redfin data, that a homebuyer needed to earn $216,995 to afford a median-priced Greater Boston home in June 2026, a 2.8% year-over-year decline in required income, but still far above the region's median household income of $127,467 (Banker & Tradesman (Redfin data), Aug 07, 2026)

From market read to offer price

A spread this wide means the citywide number cannot price a specific address; the step that matters is the property-level read. The decision still comes down to one property and one number: what it is actually worth and what you should pay. Every Resideline report opens with this same market snapshot for the subject's exact ZIP code, then gives you the property's value, the sold comps behind it, and a market rent estimate. Pricing a specific deal? The free ARV calculator and rental property calculator run the numbers in about a minute.

And we show our work. Every estimate is frozen while the home is for sale and graded against the real closing price after it sells. As of August 2026, the public scoreboard showed 3.26% median error across 12,508+ graded closings. See the live accuracy dashboard for the receipts, or read how the Area Market Snapshot works.

Run any Boston address through Resideline and you will see the local market and the property's value together, in one report.

Cite this

Using these numbers? Please cite the source and the sample size:

Source: Resideline Market Watch
Market: Boston, MA
Data updated: August 2026
Analysis period: last six months
Tracked closings: 2,251
Median sold price: $915,000
Median sold $/sqft: $828 (2,244 qualifying)
https://resideline.com/blog/boston-housing-market-2026

The local market statistics in this report are calculated from closed sales tracked by Resideline. Transaction coverage may differ from complete county or municipal records.

Every local market figure on this page is computed from closed sales Resideline tracked in Boston over the last six months, and is refreshed when the data is.