The State of Real Estate: Inside Swampscott’s Tight Spring Market

It’s the ever-present question whenever a Realtor is in the room—be it the office, school pick-up or running into friends on a night out. And I get it—it’s important to know How’s the Market, aka, how’s my equity?

Of course that question depends on your frame of reference—if you’re a buyer or a seller. And no one can argue, it’s tough to be a buyer—especially in our hometown, Overall, Swampscott is still costly, still competitive, and still short on inventory! And it’s worth saying: Swampscott isn’t one market—it’s several micro-markets. Price behavior can vary a lot by neighborhood, condition, and proximity to water, schools, and the commuter rail.

I’ve had the good fortune to have been born and raised in Swampscott—for most of the time on a great cul-de-sac in Olmsted where the walkability was key for me and my siblings. Because rain or shine, hot or cold our mom and dad weren’t driving us anywhere! If you’re a Gen X reader or beyond, I’m sure you can relate! And many years later here I was driving my kids to school. I’d swing out of Burrill Street onto the Monument and out to Humphrey. And there was the ocean and the beautiful Boston skyline and I’d say more times than they cared to hear, “Aren’t we lucky to live here?” Ask my much older kids now, they’ll tell you—I was so annoying!

With 30+ years selling properties in Swampscott, I can still recall the day I had an “OMG” moment when the median price hit $500,000! Of course, we are well beyond that now. At the end of ’25 we were double that number.

If you saw Swampscott’s 2025 numbers and thought, “Wait—did prices drop?” here’s the more accurate translation. Yes, the average single-family sale price landed around $1M, about 4.7% lower than 2024, but that can read like a market dip when it’s really a mix shift—because averages are wildly sensitive to what happens at the very top end. The giveaway? The top end took a breather. The highest sale in 2025 was about 42% lower than the highest sale in 2024, and when fewer high-end homes trade hands (or they trade at lower numbers), the average can dip even if the core of the market stays steady.

What didn’t soften in 2025 was speed, and that’s the part that really tells the story. Average days on market were down about 44%, which tells me the market wasn’t getting “weak”—it was getting more pricing-sensitive. When homes sell faster, it usually doesn’t mean buyers are less picky. It means the listings that do sell are simply better positioned: the pricing is realistic, the condition shows well, and the presentation matches what buyers are willing to pay.

If it feels like there are never enough homes to choose from in Swampscott, you’re not imagining it. Homeowners in Massachusetts stay in their homes longer than anywhere else in the country—about 13.3 years on average, versus 8.6 years nationally, according to ATTOM’s Q4 2025 Homeownership Tenure report. Translation: even when demand is strong, supply doesn’t refresh quickly. Fewer households list each year, so buyers feel like they’re choosing from a tiny menu, and sellers who price correctly can still benefit from that scarcity.

So here we are entering the Spring Market and as of this writing there are 15 properties on the market in total! Of course, that number will increase as we are heading into the season where the most homes hit the market.

There’s a phrase I’ve often used to describe our town to out-of-town buyers, “Swampscott is the first best stop on the North Shore”. And so I ask you, aren’t we lucky?

The views, recommendations and/or opinions in the sponsored content are those of the author and do not imply any endorsement or approval by Swampscott Tides, Inc.