Published September 27, 2026
Cambridge, MA Real Estate: August 2026 vs. August 2025
Cambridge Real Estate: August 2026 vs. August 2025
A note on how these numbers are built
This report compares Cambridge MLS closed-sale data for August 2025 and August 2026, property by property. Because a month-to-month comparison can be swung hard by just one or two unusual sales — especially for single-family and multifamily, where only a handful of properties closed — every figure below shows both the average and the median, so you can see when they agree (a more trustworthy signal) and when they diverge (a sign the month’s mix, not the underlying market, is doing the talking).
Single-family homes
| Metric | Aug 2025 (n=6) | Aug 2026 (n=11) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average sale price | $2,911,667 | $2,448,227 | −15.9% |
| Median sale price | $3,075,000 | $1,764,000 | −42.6% |
| Average $/sq ft | $812 | $1,079 | +32.9% |
| Average days to offer | 34.5 | 46.2 | slower |
Condominiums
| Metric | Aug 2025 (n=46) | Aug 2026 (n=56) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average sale price | $1,240,448 | $1,143,760 | −7.8% |
| Median sale price | $862,000 | $935,000 | +8.5% |
| $/sq ft (median ’25 / avg ’26)* | $941 | $907 | not directly comparable* |
| Days to offer (median ’25 / avg ’26)* | 12 | 29.2 | not directly comparable* |
*The two source reports calculated $/sq ft and days-to-offer differently (median in 2025, average in 2026). Rather than force a misleading percentage out of two different statistics, both figures are shown side by side.
This is the most reliable comparison in the report. With 46 and 56 closings respectively, a single luxury sale (the $6.2M Harvard Square penthouse in 2025, the $3.4M Harvard Square townhouse in 2026) still pulls the average around, but the median is stable enough to trust: condo prices are up 8.5% year-over-year, a believable, moderate pace of appreciation for the segment with the largest sample size.
Multifamily properties
| Metric | Aug 2025 (n=8) | Aug 2026 (n=4) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average sale price | $1,809,375 | $2,557,500 | +41.3% |
| Median sale price | $1,740,000 | $2,425,000 | +39.4% |
| $/sq ft (median ’25 / avg ’26)* | $646 | $737 | +14.1%* |
| Days to offer (median ’25 / avg ’26)* | 18.5 | 20.75 | slightly slower* |
*Same methodology caveat as above; shown for reference only.
Multifamily is the one category where average and median agree — both point to roughly a 40% jump. That consistency makes the direction more believable than the single-family swing, but the sample is still tiny (8 closings in 2025, only 4 in 2026), so a single large sale like 376-378 Windsor Street ($3.425M in 2025) or 25-27 Marney Street ($4.075M in 2026) still carries outsized weight. Treat this as a real signal worth watching, not a confirmed trend.
What actually happened, property by property
Single-family, August 2025 ranged from a $910,000 North Cambridge colonial to a $4.65M Greek Revival estate near Harvard Square (29 Follen Street), with two other sales above $3.8M. It was a small, top-heavy month.
Single-family, August 2026 was a broader mix: seven sales under $2.5M, including several starter and mid-size homes in Riverside, North Cambridge, and East Cambridge, alongside four sales above $2.9M, topped by a $6.07M West Cambridge Queen Anne near Harvard Yard.
Condos in both years clustered heavily around Harvard Square, Mid-Cambridge, and North Cambridge, with studios and one-bedrooms consistently trading above $900–$1,000/sq ft in both years — this segment’s core pricing looks genuinely stable, which matches the median-price comparison above.
Multifamily sales were concentrated in East Cambridge and North Cambridge in both years, with 2025 sales split between smaller 2-family properties and 44 Windsor Street’s 4-unit building, and 2026’s four sales ranging from a $1.3M 2-family to the $4.075M, six-unit 25-27 Marney Street.
What this means for buyers and sellers
- Selling a single-family home: Don’t read the median price drop as the market weakening — it reflects which homes sold, not a decline in value. Pricing strategy and comparable selection matter more than ever when the monthly averages are this unstable.
- Selling a condo: The data here is solid. An 8.5% year-over-year gain in median price, on a large sample, suggests real, moderate appreciation — the segment where you can point to the numbers with the most confidence.
- Investing in multifamily: The roughly 40% jump in average and median price is a real signal but built on very few transactions. Before treating it as the new baseline, it’s worth looking at a longer window of monthly data or waiting for a few more months of closings to confirm the trend holds.
Frequently asked questions
Are Cambridge condo prices up or down year-over-year?
Up. The median condo sale price rose from $862,000 in August 2025 to $935,000 in August 2026, an 8.5% increase, based on a sample of 46 and 56 closings respectively.Did single-family home prices fall in Cambridge?
Not necessarily. The median single-family sale price fell sharply from August 2025 to August 2026, but the sample size in both months was small (6 and 11 sales), and the drop reflects which specific homes sold rather than a broad decline in value. Average price-per-square-foot actually rose over the same period.Why do average and median prices sometimes move in opposite directions?
When a sample is small, one or two unusually priced properties can pull the average price up or down without changing the “typical” (median) sale much, or vice versa. This is common in categories like single-family homes and multifamily buildings, where monthly closing counts are low.Is Cambridge multifamily property appreciating?
Both the average and median multifamily sale price rose roughly 40% from August 2025 to August 2026, a signal worth taking seriously since both statistics agree, but the sample size (8 and 4 sales) is small enough that this should be watched over a longer period before treating it as a firm trend.The bottom line
Condos are Cambridge’s most stable, most reliably measured segment right now, and they’re appreciating at a believable, moderate pace. Single-family and multifamily numbers moved much more dramatically this particular August, but with sample sizes this small, that’s more a story about which homes happened to close than about where the market as a whole is heading. If you’re making a pricing or investment decision, lean on the median over the average, and be cautious drawing conclusions from any one month in the lower-volume categories.
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