Greater Boston’s million-dollar homes now selling below asking – The Boston Globe

To answer those questions, Zillow ran some numbers for Boston Globe Media on the Greater Boston luxury housing market, and there’s good news for buyers: The market has cooled, with more homes selling below the asking price. Exactly how much of a discount, however, depends on the price point.

In its analysis, Zillow compared median home sales prices and the premium or discount buyers paid for two periods: the third quarter of 2021 in the middle of the pandemic, and the third quarter of 2025.

Zillow broke down the data into three listing price points:

• Under $2 million
• Between $2 million and $9.99 million
• Over $10 million

In the third quarter of 2021, homes under $2 million in Greater Boston sold for a median sales price of $590,000, and the median premium paid by buyers — the amount over the initial listing price — was $11,000, or 2.4 percent. Fast forward to the third quarter of 2025, and homes listed for less than $2 million in Greater Boston had a median sales price of $700,000 — and no premium or discount was paid by buyers, according to Zillow.

“The market today is nothing like 2021, because homes were scarce then, and there were amazing interest rates,” said Catherine Bassick, a real estate broker with Douglas Elliman in Boston.

For homes listed between $2 million and $9.99 million, the median sales price was $2.6 million in the third quarter of 2021, and sold at a median discount of $52,000, or 1.9 percent. Compare that to the third quarter of 2025, when the median was still $2.6 million, but the discount buyers received had grown to $120,000, or 4 percent below the initial listing price. Bassick said those discounts are due to the pricing strategy used by many agents in Greater Boston.

“In a lot of the country, real estate agents tend to underprice homes, and then they sell for over asking price,” she said. “But Boston brokers tend to price things aggressively to allow room to negotiate. Plus, a lot of homes in this price bracket are priced aspirationally because sellers think their home is worth a lot more than it is, so they tend to go for under the asking price.”

Of course, there are exceptions. A four-bedroom home in Newton was listed in February 2025 for $2.3 million and sold one month later for $2.5 million after receiving 12 offers.

“It was a perfect storm,” said Debby Belt of Hammond Residential, the listing agent. “It was priced well, to and there was limited inventory.”

And what about the most expensive homes in Greater Boston — those listed for over $10 million?

In the third quarter of 2021, these uber-luxury homes had a median sales price of $12 million, and sold for a median discount of $1.1 million, or 7.7 percent, according to Zillow. But by the third quarter of 2025, the median sales price had dropped to $10.5 million, and homes over $10 million were selling for a discount of $1.62 million, or 13.6 percent, Zillow said.

“Buyers in our market are accustomed to negotiating and paying less or waiting it out until a seller gets frustrated and just sells to someone who makes an offer,” Bassick said.

“These trends reflect a general cooling in the housing market since 2021 that’s hit most of the country, including Boston,” said Kara Ng, Zillow’s senior economist. “Mortgage rates rose in 2022, which put a lid on what many buyers could afford and cooled demand.”

That said, Greater Boston was named one of Zillow’s 10 hottest markets for 2026. Inventory is 30 percent below pre-pandemic norms, which is driving competition for each home — good news for sellers.