January sales, median prices paint city in dim light

This year’s housing market has gotten off to a slow start, according to Timothy M. Warren Jr. of the Warren Group, which tracks real estate activity throughout Massachusetts.

Data from both the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and the Listing Information Network reflect the same trends.

Sales in the 11 neighborhoods covered by Boston Homes dropped dramatically from the previous month, according to LINK, with just 221 sales reported last month compared to 355 a month earlier. In January 2008, LINK listed 315 transactions.

This unique single-family loft-like home at 37 Winchester St. in Bay Village sold in January for $969,000. 

Median sale prices slipped in all but two neighborhoods – the South End/Bay Village area and the North End/Waterfront/Financial District – in a year-to-year and a month-to-month comparison. In Charlestown, the median selling price was higher in January than in December.

The median sale is the midway point among the transactions; half were more expensive and half less costly.

The Boston Homes neighborhoods are Back Bay and Midtown; Beacon Hill and the West End; Charlestown and the Navy Yard; Downtown (which includes the Leather District, Fort Point and the Seaport District); the Fenway; Jamaica Plain; the South End and Bay Village; the Waterfront and the North End; South Boston; Dorchester and East Boston.

The highest median selling price was in the Waterfront/North End area in January, where a 1,220-square-foot condominium at Harbor Towers at 65 East India Row sold for $560,000. A year earlier, the median selling price was $478,000 for a 1,030-square-foot, one-bedroom condo at 120 Fulton St. That compares to the $545,000 sale of a 900-square-foot, two-bedroom condo at 64-66 Salem St.

The most expensive sale in Charlestown was the single-family, five-bedroom brick townhouse at 6 Wallace Court. Completely renovated, it has a garden-level suite. It sold for $1.08 million.

The next highest median selling price was in the South End in January, where a 1,039-square-foot third-floor loft at Gateway Terrace at 40 Fay St. sold for $540,000. A year earlier, the median selling price was $510,000 for a 1,209-square-foot, two-bedroom condo at 451 Massachusetts Ave. In December, $520,000 was the median selling price for a new fifth-floor one-bedroom condo with 1,023 square feet of living space at the Penmark at 21 Fr. Francis Gilday St.

The Back Bay/Midtown neighborhood, traditionally the highest priced section of the city, saw its median price reported at $510,500, behind the Waterfront and South End. That sum purchased a 775-square-foot condo with one-plus bedrooms at the Schoolhouse Condominiums at 145 St. Botolph St. In January 2008, the median selling price was $710,000 for a 793-square-foot, two-bedroom unit at 244 Beacon St. In December, it was an 858-square-foot penthouse at 304 Beacon St. that sold for $750,000 that was the median sale.

January’s median selling price in the Downtown/Fort Point/Leather District/Seaport area was $450,000, which purchased a 1,114-square-foot condo with one-plus bedrooms at the Allele at 150 Dorchester Ave. A year earlier, the median selling price was $555,000 for a 1,425-square-foot loft at 150 Lincoln St. In December the median selling price was $640,000 for a 1,191-square-foot condo with two bedrooms at the “environmentally green” Macallen Building at 141 Dorchester Ave.

A 1,900-square-foot loft at 35 Channel Center in the Fort Point neighborhood sold for $767,900 in January.

Charlestown’s median sale price last month was $400,000, which purchased a 1,272-square-foot top-floor condo with two-plus bedrooms at 2380 Bunker Hill St. The median sale in December was for a three-family home at 10 St. Martin St. The 2,658-square-foot house sold for $376,000. In January 2008, the median sale was $465,000, which purchased a one-bedroom, 793-square-foot condo at Flagship Wharf at 197 Eighth St.

South Boston’s median sale price was higher than that in Beacon Hill and Jamaica Plain in January. A two-bedroom condo with 700 square feet of living space at 489 East Third St. sold for $341,000. That compares to a 1,186-square-foot, two-bedroom condo at Strawberry Hill at 540 East Broadway that sold for $408,500 a year ago. In December, the median sale price was $369,000 for a 904-square-foot, two-bedroom condo at 200 West Sixth St.

A 438-square-foot, one-bedroom condo at 21 Beacon St. that sold for $300,000 was Beacon Hill’s median sale in January. A year earlier, the median selling price was $380,000 for a two-bedroom, 1,119-square-foot condo at 8 Whittier Place at Charles River Park. In December, the $442,000 sale of another condo in that expansive development was the median. It was a two-bedroom, 1,285-square-foot condo at 9 Hawthorne Place.

In Jamaica Plain, it was a to bedroom condo with 1,051 square feet of space at 46 Green St. that was the median sale at $300,000. A year earlier, the median selling price was $395,000 for a two-bedroom, 1,166-square-foot condo at 6 Holbrook St. In December, a 739-square-foot loft at the former American Brewery at 251 Heath St. with a courtyard was the median sale. It sold for $315,000.

The Fenway’s median sale price last month was $218,000, which purchased a 24-square-foot studio at 52 The Fenway. A year earlier, the median sale price was $395,000 for a 938-square-foot, one-bedroom condo at 905 Beacon St. In December, a new, 1,050-square-foot condo at Audubon Park at 16 Miner St. that sold for $289,000 was the median.

Just one condo was sold in East Boston in January; most of the sales were for two- and three-family houses. The median sale was for a three-family house with 2,431 square feet of living space at 141 Princeton St., which sold for $210,000. A year earlier, the median selling price was $225,000, which acquired an 896-square-foot single-family house at 65 Barnes Ave. In December, a single-family house at 291 Lexington St. with 2,150 square feet, purchased for $190,000, was the median sale.

Lastly, in Dorchester the median sale among 77 transactions last month was a two-family house with 1,636 square feet of living space at 98-100 Msgr. P.J. Lydon Way that sold for $142,500. A year earlier, the median selling price was $310,000 for a 1,850-square-foot single-family house at 22 Glendale St. In December the median sale was for a first floor condo at 106 Robey St. that sold for $200,000.