New neighbors
By 
Cape cod apparently saw a lot of moving vans last year, but the South Coast was unusually quiet in home-buying activity. The larger map below shows the number of single-family homes and condos (both new and pre-owned) sold for every 10,000 current residents in each town. Provincetown (population: 3,400), was the clear leader in the infusion of new property owners, with 216 condos and 29 homes sold. That’s more than 10 times the number of sales in Sunderland, which has a slightly larger current population. Outside of western Massachusetts, which is presumably too far to attract many commuters to Boston, the Fall River and New Bedford areas stand out a lack of activity in the residential market.
Boston itself was not too far behind the state average, with 148 sales for every 10,000 residents. But sales of condos greatly outpaced single-family homes (6,766 to 1,511), and in two neighborhoods (East Boston and South Boston), the average condo was just about as expensive as the average house. The smaller map shows where condos make up a large part of the residential real-estate market; besides the immediate Boston area, condos appear to be growing in popularity along the New Hampshire border and just west of I-495.
Source: The Warren Group (www.thewarrengroup.com). Only single-family homes an dcondos are included in sales data.