Why Cambridge Condos Are Taking Longer to Sell

If you own a condo in Boston, Cambridge, or Somerville and it’s been sitting longer than you’d like, it’s not just you. Stories have been written about it. The condo market is softening here and all over the country, and the sales data backs up what the headlines have been saying.

Start with cost because it drives much of this. Insurance is up, maintenance is up, and that lands right on your HOA fees. Even a tiny two- or three-unit association, like we’ve got all over the place, still has to cover the water and sewer, the master insurance, and the upkeep on the building. When insurance rates climb, those fees rise with them, and high HOA fees have always been a drag on value. People just won’t pay as much for a condo with a heavy monthly fee. Joel Berner, a senior economist at Realtor.com, said it flat out in Newsweek: the cost-effectiveness of condo ownership has waned, and condos are struggling to sell in most major markets.

Then there’s hybrid work. When you’re only in the office a day or two a week, that one-hour drive from the suburbs suddenly makes sense. Five days a week, no way, but two days? People will do it. I sold a condo in Jamaica Plain this year for a friend and client I’d helped buy it back in 2014. Now he’s got a family and kids, so he moved out to Northborough, got a big house on several acres, and he’s thrilled, because he only has to be in the city a day or two a week.

Here in Cambridge, we’ve got our own factors on top of that. This is one of the most education-heavy places in the world, and a lot of our grad and undergrad students have always come from overseas, and plenty would buy a condo for the years they were here. When fewer of them come, that demand dries up. And Cambridge runs on biotech, but that engine has cooled. Massachusetts life sciences jobs actually fell in 2025, the first drop in over a decade, and you feel a shift like that in the housing market.

This is what the data say. I ran Cambridge condo sales for 2019 against a full year of 2025.

• In 2019, we had 572 sales, offers in just under 25 days, about 35 days on market, and 111 listings expired or were canceled.
• In 2025, that was 491 sales, 33 days to an offer, 46 days on market, and 274 expired or canceled

These numbers say it pretty emphatically: it takes longer, and more listings aren’t selling.

Prices didn’t actually drop. Condos still sold for about $932 per square foot in 2025, up from $823 in 2019, so you’re up over $100 per square foot in six years. But put that against single-family homes in the suburbs over the same stretch, and I think you’d find the houses grew a good bit faster.

What does it mean going forward? Who knows. Trends start, and trends end. Condos have gone in and out of favor before, and they will again. But right now, if you’re frustrated trying to sell yours, at least you know it’s not just you.

You can watch the full video above, or feel free to skip to the topics that interest you most using the timestamps below:

00:00 — Softening Condo Market

02:50 — A Client Example

04:04 — Cambridge-Specific Factors

06:24 — Digging Into Data

09:07 — What It Means

10:51 — Reach Out

If you’d like to talk through this, or anything affecting your real estate plans in Cambridge or the greater Boston area, reach out anytime. Call or text me at 857-210-9925, email lou@c21revolution.com, or visit lousellscambridge.com. I’d love to have a conversation and see how I can help.