Listings and sales were different measures
A July 2020 Boston City Properties article examined Massachusetts housing conditions during the early pandemic. It reported that March 2020 single-family listings were down 32.9 percent from March 2019, while condominium listings were down 27.8 percent.
The same account described smaller declines in completed sales: 1.1 percent for single-family homes and 2.7 percent for condominiums over that comparison period. Fewer listings and fewer sales are related market signals, but they are not interchangeable counts.
Prices in the same historical period
The article reported a March 2020 single-family median sale price of $416,000, up 6.5 percent year over year, and a condominium median of $428,500, up 14.3 percent. These were statewide historical medians, not asking prices for a particular home or current neighborhood valuations.
The account considered supply constraints and the disruption of normal selling activity as part of the context. Its conclusions about later market behavior were expectations, not established outcomes. The useful snapshot is the coexistence of lower listing counts, smaller sales declines and higher medians in the period described.
Historical attribution: Original Boston City Properties article, July 2020. Reported claims and attributed assessments have not been independently refreshed.