Introduction

As we look back on 2024, I am excited to share with you a complete breakdown of Cambridge neighborhood data for:

Average rental prices for 1, 2, 3, and 4-bedroom units
Average sold prices for 2 and 3-family properties
Average sold prices for 1, 2, 3, and 4-bedroom condos

If you want to skip the high-level data summary and jump RIGHT to details on your neighborhood only, click on one of the links below:

Central Square / Cambridgeport ✦ Harvard Square ✦ Kendall Square ✦ Alewife ✦ Porter Square ✦ Davis Square

Data Summary

This data could be valuable to you in several cases:

If you’re an investor or thinking about becoming an investor, these data points will help you figure out on a high-level what you can roughly expect for rental rates in various neighborhoods based on bedroom count for rentals as well as condos. You’ll also have a better understanding of what you’ll need to pay to purchase multi-family properties.
If you are a primary buyer looking for a condo, you should have a pretty good idea of what neighborhoods are likely to be affordable for you and which ones are likely out of budget or pushing it.
When you see fields that are marked “N/A” there were not enough data points for that specific category. Generally this means there are not a lot of sales or rented units for that specific property type. This is actually valuable information, because if you are looking in a category that is marked N/A as a primary buyer, it signals it may not be easy to find or what you’re looking for may not exist at all - in other words, there’s a good chance you’ll need to adjust your search.

A few quick caveats on the data:

The data is from MLSpin. Understand that there are many rentals that happen off MLS and are not covered in this data set.
No off-market data is included.
Some fields have N/A. We require a minimum 10 rental data points or 3 buy/sell data points to populate data.
All neighborhood locations are a 0.5 mile radius from their T or commuter rail stop.
There was insufficient data to include studios this year.

After looking at this data, are you concerned your rental is underpriced or overpriced? Are you curious about selling or investing in multi-families? Are you thinking of buying a condo and feel overwhelmed? Please give me a ring to discuss anytime at 617-833-7457. Read on for my thoughts and analysis.

Neighborhood Deep Dive

Continue reading for my thoughts on each neighborhood. If you don’t want to scroll to find the neighborhood you’re interested in, just click on one of the links below.

Central Square / Cambridgeport ✦ Harvard Square ✦ Kendall Square ✦ Alewife ✦ Porter Square ✦ Davis Square

Central Square / Cambridgeport

This part of Cambridge continues to command extremely high multi-family and condo sales prices. In 2024, Central Square / Cambridgeport was tied for the highest 3-family average sale price and had the 3rd highest average sale price for 3-bed condos.

The high demand for properties/investments in Central Square/Cambridgeport makes a lot of sense. You’re walking distance to Harvard, you’re 2 T stops to downtown Boston and prices have skyrocketed over the last decade.

That being said, buyers often have to pay a premium to land a property in this neighborhood. If you’re an investor who doesn’t have (or doesn’t want to put down) the cash to access a neighborhood like this, then there are other high-potential neighborhoods to keep in consideration as well. For example, an average 2-bed in Central Square clocked in at $3,737 whereas a 2-bed in Union Square Somerville came in at $3,333. That’s a $400/month difference on a 2-bed unit, but the average 3-family sold price in Central was $1.973M compared to $1.587M for Union Square. For some investors, a neighborhood like Union Square then becomes a great alternative.

Harvard Square

Harvard Square continues to put out extremely high rental numbers - it’s essentially tied with Kendall Square ($4,511) for the highest for 2-beds at $4,495. Keep in mind, Kendall Square has many luxury buildings with rentals that skew their numbers up whereas Harvard Square has a lot of older units - so in my mind if you make a true apples to apples comparison Harvard Square is the clear winner when it comes to rental prices in all of Cambridge.

The other thing you’ll notice is the “N/A” field for both 2 and 3 families in Harvard Square. The reality is that there is very limited multi-family inventory within ½ mile of Harvard Square. In addition, there is not a lot of turnover with the inventory that does exist. So if you are thinking of buying a multi-family very close to Harvard Square, expect to either wait for a while or pay a heavy premium to get into this market.

Finally, the Harvard Square condo market is extremely strong. It has the highest average sold price for both 2-beds ($1.304M) and 3-beds ($1.887M). Again there is a “N/A” for 4-beds, an indication that finding very large condos close to Harvard Square is a very difficult task, although with a big enough budget, certainly doable.

Harvard Square in my mind is the top neighborhood when it comes to price and competition - generally to be competitive in a purchase you will need to come in with a very high, over ask, no/low contingency offer.

Kendall Square

Kendall Square rental numbers are extremely strong with 1st place position in 1-beds ($3,346) and 2-beds ($4,511), and 2nd place position in 3-beds ($4,938). I think it’s important to note here that rental numbers here are a bit skewed, since a lot of the inventory comes in the form of new luxury buildings with lots of amenities like gyms, front desk, roof deck, garage parking, etc. The inventory in other parts of Cambridge tends to skew towards older, early 1900s buildings. I think you will find that older buildings close to Kendall Square tend to fall more in the middle of the pack in Cambridge, so keep this in mind when looking over the data.

Kendall Square 2-families are the lowest price point in the Cambridge data set, which is what I would expect. Most 2-families around Kendall Square are dated and have very tight spaces and often funky layouts. In addition, this part of Cambridge is a bit less happening compared to Central or Harvard Square. The result is that you will find most 2-family units rent for significantly less than the average Kendall Square rental numbers, which are propped up by the luxury building in Kendall Square.

Kendall Square also has very high sold prices for condos - coming in 1st for 1-beds, 2nd for 2-beds, and 2nd for 3-beds. Again this is in large part due to the new builds and luxury condo market, which is in demand among MIT-affiliated buyers and biotech executives/scientists in Kendall Square.

Alewife

When it comes to rentals, Alewife falls in the middle of the pack which is generally what I have seen over the last 5 years or so. Many renters target Alewife for it’s red line access, fresh pond access, Fresh Pond Mall / Alewife Brook Parkway Shopping Center, easy access to Rt 2 and it’s slightly lower price points compared to some other parts of Cambridge.

As you can see, there is very limited multi-family sales that took place in this part of Cambridge in the last year within ½ mile of the Alewife T stop. Typically this is not an area where I see a ton of transaction volume on the multi-family front but occasionally good deals can be had here.

There is also limited condo activity in this part of Cambridge, with the bulk of the condo transactions in 2024 happening in the Wheeler St condo complex.

Porter Square

Porter Square is a mature market in Cambridge with consistently solid interest from renters. You’ll see very solid rental numbers for both 1, 2, 3, and 4 bedroom units. You’ll also see an outrageously high average sold price for 2-families, which eclipsed the average 3-family sold price. This is due to a new construction 2-family that sold for a very high price and skewed the data upward. If we took out that data point, a median 2-family ½ mile to Porter would fall more typically in the $1.4 - $1.5M range.

The average condo sales prices for Porter Square seem a bit low, but it really depends where precisely you are looking in Porter Square. For example, the Avon Hill section of Cambridge generally attracts higher sold prices for condos compared to some other areas just a bit further north. If you are thinking about purchasing a condo in this part of Cambridge let me know and I can give you more insights into what to realistically budget here.

Davis Square

In my mind, I often lump Davis Square in the same category as Porter Square, and if you look at the data, you can see why. The numbers, tenant quality, and price points for both multis and condos are often very close to each other.

You will notice N/As for both sets of multi-family data points in Davis Square - the main reason why is this is the Davis Square section of Cambridge, which is only a small fraction of the geographical area within a ½ mile of the Davis Sq T stop - the vast majority of multi inventory close to Davis Square lies on the Somerville side. If you want to read the data for the Somerville section of Davis Square, please click here.

And that wraps up the latest data and my analysis on Cambridge! If you want to discuss further, give me a ring/text at 617-833-7457 or shoot me an email at Sage@CambridgeSage.com.

Cambridge Real Estate Market Review: 2024