The dramatic surge in Greater Boston real estate prices has drastically pushed up the value of homes in once-solidly middle- and working-class communities, like this 3,630-square-foot split-level in Quincy on the market for $919,900. Image courtesy of eXp Realty

Million-dollar home sales are starting to pop up in some of the unlikeliest places as prices across Massachusetts shatter records. 

A decades–long slump in new residential construction in the Boston area has created a dire shortage of homes for sale, driving up prices across the board and putting a premium on anything new or recently renovated. 

It has also led to a jump in sales at the top end of the market in towns where, not long ago, million–dollar or even $800,000 or $900,000 listings were an unusual occurrence. 

Once proudly affordable and solidly middle- and working-class suburbs and cities like Natick and Quincy, Medford and Burlington and even Woburn and Revere, among others, are seeing a surge of home sales in seven-figure range or close to it. 

Sales of homes $800,000 and up have doubled in Natick over the past five years, quadrupled in Waltham, Beverly and North Reading and nearly tripled in North Andover and Dedham, according to statistics from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. 

Places like Quincy, Revere, Braintree and Walpole have gone from one or two homes selling for over $800,000 to a dozen or more, a comparison of sales from the first six months of 2019 with the same period in 2014 shows. 

And if you are thinking that a cool million will buy you a landed estate in Natick or an urban palace in Quincy, think again.  

“The million-dollar market has spread to Metro Boston towns, especially Watertown, Arlington and Medford,” Sara Rosenfeld, a Realtor and a premiere associate at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Somerville, said in an email. “Smaller single–family houses (1,800 to 2,000 square feet) close to the city are in the highest demand.” 

Big dollar figures on homes in once-middling Boston suburbs won’t guarantee a living room like this, by a long shot.

Middling Communities, Million–Dollar Homes 

Million-dollar home sales are old hat in traditionally upscale suburbs like Wellesley and Lincoln, Weston and Belmont, as well as hip urban hot spots like Cambridge and Somerville. 

In fact, the number of posh ’burbs and hipster urban neighborhoods where even the median price tops $1 million or more has exploded since the Great Recession. 

But as the rich towns and neighborhoods get richer, their more humble neighbors are also moving up the price scale, in some cases quite dramatically. 

Next door to wealthy Wellesley, Natick saw 42 sales over $800,000 during the first six months of 2019, compared to 17 during the same period in 2014. There were 28 homes on the market for over $900,000 last week, according to Redfin, including a four–bed, three–bath home for $1.75 million and a five–bed and a three–and–a-half-bath for nearly $1.4 million. 

Medford, which has emerged as an alternative for buyers priced out of Somerville and Cambridge, saw 30 sales worth more than $800,000 in the first half of 2019, compared to just two during the same period in 2014. 

There is a six–bed, four-bath home with nearly 4,500 square feet and a postage stamp–sized yard on the market in Medford for nearly $1.25 million, and a four–bed, three–bath Victorian listed for just under $1.2 million. 

Waltham has seen 21 sales of $800,000 and up compared to five during the same period in 2014, while in Watertown the numbers are 17 so far this year, compared to just two five years ago. 

Maybe the most surprising entry into the million-dollar market is lunch bucket Quincy, which has seen 12 sales over $800,000 so far this year, compared to just one five years ago.  

What’s a Quincy Split-Level Worth? 

But it’s not just the fact that more homes are selling for near or over $1 million in place like Natick and Quincy and Waltham that is a head spinner. 

We are now starting to see sales and listings in many of these communities approaching or even topping $2 million. 

“I’m definitely seeing more communities enter the million–dollar market while others, like Quincy and Waltham, that had million–dollar homes three or four years ago now, not only have more homes over $1 million, but the prices of some of those homes have matriculated up into the high million–dollar range and, on occasion, spilling over into the $2 million-plus segment,” said David Crowley, a strategic real estate advisor at One Boston Luxury Living | William Raveis Boston. 

Simply put, a million dollars, or close to it, just won’t buy as much anywhere, even if you are talking about Medford or Natick. 

Scott Van Voorhis

In Natick, $1.2 million will get you a brand–new colonial with four bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths and nearly 4,000 square feet of space on a lot cleared by the teardown of an older and more modestly priced home. But it is smack on Bacon, one of the busiest streets in town. 

For just under $920,000, you can get a five-bed, three–bath split–level on Gardiner Street in Quincy. Sure, it’s a nice–looking, red brick home, but it’s still a split–level in Quincy. 

My favorite is a three-bedroom, one–bathroom home in Medford with some cheap–looking fake brick siding. It’s on the market for $1 million. If it were in Cambridge, it would fetch three or four times that. 

It’s just another sign of the times in the ever–more insane world of Greater Boston real estate. 

Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.