Facts About Housing in Wellesley

Market Prices

As of November 2023, the median value of a home in Wellesley is $1.4 million, or about 15.5 years worth of income for the typical Massachusetts household.
In November 2023, 96% of homes in Wellesley were valued at more than $543,000, which is roughly the median Massachusetts home price.
In 2022, the median price of a single-family home in Wellesley was nearly $1.9 million, a 97% increase from 2012.
Between Q1 2000 and Q2 2023, home values in Wellesley increased by 112%, compared to the Consumer Price Index, a common measure of inflation, which has grown by 79%.
As of 2020, 21% of Wellesley homeowners and 41% of renters pay more than 30% of their income for housing costs.
An October 2020 Brookings Institution analysis estimated that the development costs associated with building a new single-family home in Wellesley Hills average $1.9 million, compared to the per-unit cost of building a new condominium of $500,000.

Subsidized Housing

As of June 2023, Wellesley had 10.7% of its housing stock in the state’s Subsidized Housing Inventory. This is a higher share than most Massachusetts communities, but a lower share than many well-resourced Boston suburbs, including Andover, Bedford, Brookline, Burlington, Canton, Dedham, Foxborough, Hopkinton, Lexington, Lincoln, Needham, Sudbury, Westborough, and others.
Types of subsidized housing in Wellesley:

Housing Diversity

As of 2018, more than 81% of housing units and 94% of owner-occupied units in Wellesley were single-family dwellings.
In 2018, 92% of the land zoned for housing in Wellesley was occupied by single-family homes.

Housing Production

In June 2019, The Boston Foundation estimated that, from 2013-2017, Wellesley issued building permits for just 64.1% of the housing units needed to satisfy its proportional share of regional housing demand.
Between 2010 and 2020, Wellesley’s population grew by 5.6%, while our housing stock grew by 1.0%.