Cambridge Sale Prices Span Wide Range From Under $1 Million to $25 Million

CAMBRIDGE -- A $25.4 million transfer on Massachusetts Avenue stood out among 16 property deeds recorded in Cambridge from Sept. 25 through Oct. 24, though most of the month's filings arrived without a sale price attached to the registry record.

MARKET OVERVIEW

The South Middlesex Registry of Deeds recorded 16 Cambridge property transfers during the period. Of those, five carry a sale price so far: $730,000, $775,000, $962,600, $5.2 million and $25.4 million. The median among those five is $962,600. The remaining 11 transfers show "price not yet available," which typically reflects a lag before consideration amounts post to the registry rather than any withholding by the parties. With roughly two-thirds of the period's deeds still missing price data, the raw count of 16 transfers does not by itself indicate whether the market was especially active or slow; a fuller read on pricing will depend on figures that post in the coming days.

TOP SALES

The period's largest transaction was at 955 Massachusetts Ave., which sold for $25.4 million on Sept. 28; the seller was listed as Massachusetts Avenue MA LLC and the buyer as Mass Ave LLC. The second-largest sale, recorded at $5.2 million on Sept. 30, did not list a specific street address in the deed record beyond "Cambridge, MA"; the seller was Manta Ray Management LLC and the buyer was listed as Oxford Street RE JV LLC and Oxford Street RE LLC. A condominium at 2 Earhart St., Unit Tango 134, sold for $962,600 on Sept. 30; Yao Hong and Wang Weiwen sold to Nancy and Steven Parker. A condo at 14 Fairmont St., Unit 2, sold for $775,000 on Sept. 25, with sellers listed as Heng and Xiong Yu and buyers Qi Yanling and Wang Suhua. A condominium at 287 Harvard St., Unit 79, sold for $730,000 on Sept. 30; the sellers were Xie Guangyu and Chen Youhua, and the buyer was William Doucette. Bedroom, bathroom and square-footage figures are not available from deed records for any of these sales.

NEIGHBORHOOD BREAKDOWN

Massachusetts Avenue saw two separate transfers in the period: the $25.4 million sale at 955 Massachusetts Ave. and a transfer at 1570 Massachusetts Ave. for which no price has yet posted. No other street name repeats among the 16 recorded addresses. Among the five sales with known prices, three fell below $1 million (the Harvard Street, Fairmont Street and Earhart Street condos), one fell in the $1 million to $10 million range ($5.2 million), and one exceeded $10 million ($25.4 million). The 11 transfers without a posted price span addresses across Standish, Prospect, Fresh Pond, Union, Mt. Auburn, Pleasant Place, Walden, James Way, Raymond and Reservoir streets.

MARKET NOTES

Of the 16 recorded transfers, nine involve condominium units, based on "Unit" designations in the addresses: 2 Earhart St., 287 Harvard St., 190 Prospect St., 14 Union St., 457 Mt Auburn St., 66 Walden St., 14 Fairmont St., 164 Raymond St. and 57 Reservoir St. The remaining seven lack a unit designation, including the two Massachusetts Avenue transfers and the unaddressed $5.2 million sale, both of which involved LLC sellers and buyers.

A notable pattern in this period's filings: 10 of the 11 transfers without a posted sale price list matching or closely related last names on both the grantor and grantee side, consistent with trust, estate or family transfers rather than open-market sales. These include 71 Standish St. (Flamm to a Flamm trust and Munsat), 190 Prospect St. Unit 2 (St. Germain to a St. Germain trust), 14 Union St. Unit 2 (Li Fang to Li Fang and Chen Lanbo as trustees), 457 Mt Auburn St. Unit 8 (Barnes and Candreva to themselves as trustees), 7 Pleasant Place (Borne to a Borne trust), 9 James Way (Bornstein to a Bornstein revocable trust), 1570 Massachusetts Ave. (Friedman to a Friedman revocable trust), 164 Raymond St. Unit 164 (Hansen to Hansen), 57 Reservoir St. Unit 1 (Porreca to Porreca) and 66 Walden St. Unit 1 (Jun Myung S. and Jun Yeonghee J. to Jun Timothy M. and Jun Suzannah). The one exception, 59 Fresh Pond Lane, transferred from Keri Induprakas and Keri Veena to Faros Ventures Inc., an entity sale without a posted price. No square-footage data is available in deed records for this period, so price-per-square-foot comparisons cannot be calculated.

Recorded Deeds

Source: Registry of Deeds. Sale amounts shown as recorded; transfers without a disclosed consideration are noted as such.

Compiled from official town feeds, community organizations, and local press. Outside reporting is attributed inline.