In this, I’m going to go over Gloucester’s real estate market here in 2023 and what it’s like living in Gloucester Massachusetts with some pros and cons you should know before moving to Gloucester.
Gloucester is located on Cape Ann in the North Shore of Massachusetts west of both Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea with Rockport to the east.
Gloucester is known for being America’s oldest Seaport, It’s rich fishing and maritime history, not to mention some of the best seafood & its impressive beaches! Settled in 1623, this year represents Gloucester’s 400th anniversary.
Gloucester MA Real Estate
Gloucester has a complicated real estate market. There’s many different areas within Gloucester and these all command very different price points. I’m going to give the overall numbers for the town but then try and go into the more specific details later on.
So far in 2023, there has been 118 sales in Gloucester, 68 Single family and 50 condos. This is down from 145 at this point last year with both single family homes and condos having roughly a 20% drop year over year.
Looking at single family homes so far this year: the median sale price has been $645k which is only up about a thousand dollars from last year. Looking at the average it’s much higher at $876.5k and that’s actually down about $53k from last year.
Switching things up to condos which make up about a good chunk of Gloucester’s sales at about 42% of what’s sold this year between houses and condos. The median sale price here was $507.5k down about $2,500 while the average is $641k down about $3k from last year.
So to give an overview, prices are for the most part level from this time last year, if anything actually down slightly.
Currently, there are 39 active listings with a median list price of about $1 million for single family and $922k for condos. There’s also 29 sales currently pending with median days to offer being just over a week, generally at 8-9 days
As I mentioned earlier, Gloucester is a complicated real estate market and a lot of that comes down to the diversity in its market. There’s 21 different parts to Gloucester that I can pull data for on MLS
Some of the more distinct parts of Gloucester are East & West Gloucester, Magnolia, Wingaersheek, & Annisquam.
Certain parts of Gloucester also command very different prices, for example there are single family homes “or estates really” that can go well over $5 million, currently there’s a very interesting home with what could only be described as a castle watch tower! Listed for $9M.
Then on the other end of the spectrum, there’s a number of condos in the low to mid 200s which is kind of a bargain price point for the north shore. One example is the Harborview condos and Ocean Terrace which are both located in Magnolia. – Magnolia is somewhat separated from the rest of Gloucester closer to Manchester by the Sea.
Now just in Magnolia there are multi million dollar waterfront homes, but just a stone’s throw away there are these condos that generally trade in the mid $200,000s!
Pros & Cons to Living in Gloucester
Transitioning from the numbers into more of what it’s like living in Gloucester, I want to look at what I believe to be some of the pros and cons. These will ultimately come down to personal preference, and what I think is a con may be a pro for you and vice versa!
Starting off with some of the pros:
There’s a lot to do in Gloucester, from whale watches, fishing excursions, to visiting the museums and historical sites. Those all will mostly appeal to the visitors and tourists more than to the Gloucester residents, but with that comes a bunch of great shops and restaurants which everyone can enjoy!
There’s a ton of restaurants in Gloucester, particularly some top tier seafood restaurants given that it’s mostly fresh caught and hasn’t really had to be transported.
With that, Gloucester is great for those who enjoy fishing and or boating. It’s pretty much centered around it’s fishing and boating scene with the Harbor and its history
Another Pro to Gloucester being right on the water is its beaches. Some of the most notable are Good Harbor Beach & Wingaersheek Beach.
These are some of the best beaches on the North Shore and by being a Gloucester resident you could request a resident beach sticker which forgoes the daily rate and makes it so you don’t have to reserve a parking spot in advance.
The resident sticker also allows you to park at Stage Fort park where you’ll also find Half Moon Beach and Cressy’s Beach.
There’s probably many more pros to living in Gloucester, but the last one I’ll hit you with for today is that there’s a very diverse range of affordability and housing options. It has to be one of the only places where you can get something for over $10 million but also $200,000 there’s really something for people at all different price points.
Now for some of the Cons:
Gloucester gets BUSY! As with any nice coastal town in the summer with incredible beaches, and a lot to do. Gloucester is probably one of the most popular though locally just given its history and also its notoriety outside of Massachusetts from popular movies The Perfect Storm and TV shows like Wicked Tuna
Things brings me to the next con which for residents, I would say is the influx of tourists & visitors in the summer months.
This obviously makes it extra busy, but that’s also when you get the people driving with no clue where they’re going, driving well under the speed limit, late turn signals! (We’ve all been there so you can understand, but it’s not exactly fun to be stuck behind on your way home from work)
In the pro’s I mentioned as a resident you get a beach sticker which gives you access to Gloucester’s great beaches, but a con I would say is just how busy these beaches get. Unless there’s a hurricane, or it’s the dead of winter- you’re likely not gonna have the beach to yourself!
This next con is kind of a particular gripe I have, Atlantic St to and from Wingaersheek beach is tight and twisty, and not in a fun way, but in a kind of sketchy way. Sometimes you can’t see around the corner and someone might be flying going the other direction, and then sometimes I see people walking or riding their bicycles here, which you have to avoid and be very cautious.
That’s everything for the pros and cons, I really had to sit and think about the cons where the pros were fairly easy as Gloucester is a pretty special place on the North Shore.
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Joe Luciano
Joe Luciano is a Realtor® with Bentley's Real Estate serving Gloucester, MA and the surrounding areas.