There are two major factors influencing the appreciation of the housing market in the greater Boston area: the quality of the school district and the proximity to the city of Boston due to concentrated high-paying jobs in Boston and aged traffic infrastructure in the region.
For many many years prior to Covid, the appreciation for towns with proximity to Boston (defined by Route 95) but without top schools (e.g. Woburn) overweight top school districts located further out around route 495 such as Towns Acton and Westford.
Now the trend seems to be changing. The appreciation of top School districts around route 495 is outpacing the non top tied school district towns around route 95.
The reasons maybe:
1. Even with the declaration of the end of COVID and the adoption of hybrid work schedules, the trend of families preferring suburban living has persisted.
2. The current and previous governor’s encouragement for companies to move out of the center of Boston as a measure to alleviate housing pressure. With good-paying jobs relocating to areas around Route 95 such as Waltham, the commute to work from towns near route 495 has become more manageable. This has led the appreciation curve to wildening for these towns on the chart instead of converging prior to Covid
Of course, each town has so many unique characters and the analysis can’t be overly simplified with two major factors. Also, the government can mobilize many other ways such as zoning changes to reduce the Boston housing pressure.
It will be interesting to keep monitoring the market trend to see how it unfolds