Marblehead Waterfront Colonial with Dock and almost an acre: Open House Sunday

Come see this wonderful Colonial on Sunday 12:00 – 2:00 pm. (more…)

Marblehead Oceanfront 2 House Compound Open House Sunday

11 Crown Way, Marblehead. Sunday 12:00-1:30

Two houses on one lot make this ideal for extended family, nursing home alternative or just for a weekend and summer retreat without having to battle the traffic.

This spectacular oceanfront compound offers an elegantly restored, south-facing, sun-drenched 6,265 sq. ft. main home with 15 spacious rooms including 7 bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths.

Plus Marblehead’s most stunningly located carriage house with an additional 2,404 sq. ft. of living space.

Property is uniquely protected from coastal storms.

Access to a private beach. Wonderful neighborhood; private mooring available. $4.5 million.

www.11CrownWay.com

New home prices jump 15% to all-time record high

Figures from the Commerce Department this week show that the median price of a new home in the US in April rose 15% Year on Year to reach a new all-time record of $271,600.

During the recent recession, new home sales collapsed from an annual rate of 1.4 million in July 2005 all the way to just 273,000 in February 2011.

As homebuilders are once again starting to crank up production, that rate has recovered to 454,000 in April, at which time there was 4.1 months of supply.

New home sales represent 7% of the US housing market, so are less significant than existing home sales, but are important because only by building new homes can we meet the demand from new household creation.

The good news is that new home construction (both single and multi family) was running at an annual rate of 850,000 in April, while new permits topped 1 million.

The impact of strong demand and low supply can be clearly seen in this chart from Haver Analytics:
New Home Prices Rise as Supply Falls

What Women Want

No, not an agony column, and no I don’t have the answer. But when women say “we need to talk” about housing choices, a quick read of this article on HSH’s website may give a man some hints.
Home buying bridges the gender gap

All-time one-day record for homes Under Agreement throughout Massachusetts

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 saw an all-time record for the number of homes going Under AGreement (UAG). In Marblehead alone the number almost doubled to 69 and the same pattern was duplicated throughout the State.

Does this mean that we should be wondering if Massachusetts is entering a housing bubble, as some were concerned in Los Angeles earlier this year? What is going on? (more…)

Record visits to OliverReports.com this weekend

Maybe it was the subject matter – the upper end of the market – but whatever the reason my blog had a record number of visits this weekend.

If you stumbled on my site by chance, please either “friend” Oliver Reports on Facebook or sign up at www.OliverReports.com for email alerts of new postings.

I publish one or more articles every Saturday on a variety of real estate related topics. My goal is to make the articles short and topical.

As my home page says, Oliver Reports is: “The source for Marblehead and North Shore real estate news.”

And I also publish comments on the Boston market from time to time because of the influence that market has on the entire region.

Open House waterfront home with dock and nearly an acre in park-like setting

Come see this wonderful Colonial on Sunday 12:00 – 2:00 pm.
36 Crestwood Road (West Shore Drive to Shorewood Road to Pinecliff Drive to Crestwood).
Details:
Waterfront, updated, 4 bedroom 3,820 s.f. Colonial on nearly an acre in park-like setting with private dock. Home overlooks Wyman’s Cove and has views to the Beverly shore. Master suite has views up the harbor and beyond. Hardwood floors, central air, finished walkout lower level, & two car garage. Radiant heat in bathroom floors.

www.36CrestwoodRoad.com with interactive floor plans.

Oceanfront compound Open House Sunday

11 Crown Way. Sunday 2:00-3:30
Two properties on one lot make this ideal for extended family, nursing home alternative or just for a weekend and summer retreat without having to battle the traffic.
This spectacular oceanfront compound offers an elegantly restored, south facing, sun-drenched 6,265 sq. ft. main home with 15 spacious rooms including 7 bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths. Uniquely protected from coastal storms. Plus Marblehead’s most stunningly located carriage house offers an additional 2,404 sq. ft. Access to a private beach. Wonderful neighborhood and potential for a private mooring.

www.11CrownWay.com

Where have all the buyers gone?

Wait a minute, don’t I mean sellers? Isn’t the lament – posted here and everywhere else – that the housing market is being held back by the lack of sellers?

Well, yes, that is certainly true at lower price levels. In MHD, for example,there are just 16 Single Family Homes (SFHs) available for sale under $500,000, compared with a total of Sold, Under Agreement and with an Accepted Offer (SUAGAO) of 59 so far this year. That works out to less than 2 months of supply, when 6 months is regarded as a stable market.

But while the market at the higher end is booming in Boston and robust elsewhere, buyers at $1.5 million and above seem largely to have given the North Shore a pass, at least so far.

Here are some numbers I ran yesterday for Marblehead which I found startling. So far this year, the number of SFHs under $1.5 million that had either Sold, were Under Agreement or had an Accepted Offer (SUAGAO) was 124. The number available for sale was just 59, so sales and pending sales were more than twice the available supply.

Now let’s look at SFHs at $1.5 million and above. The number available was 35 – or more than half the number under $1.5 million. But the number that have sold or received an accepted offer (SUAGAO) was….4. Let’s be explicit. If sales at this level were at the same pace as sales below $1.5 million the number of sales and accepted offers would be 73. But it is just 4. (more…)

Waterfront property in Marblehead $1 million below Assessed Value

One of the surprises to me this year has been the relatively low level of activity in Marblehead waterfront property. I know there is quite a lot of supply, but with the top end hitting new highs in Boston and other cities it does seem that there is an opportunity to buy wonderful property at a great price. As my attorney said to me when I closed on my house many years ago: “they can’t make any more waterfront”.

Recently a beautifully elegant waterfront property came on the market for $1 million below its Assessed Value. The house does need some updating – and I know from personal experience how much it can cost to restore an old house – but if you are in the market for a traditional, New England waterfront property, this is well worth a look.

I’d love to tell you more about this house but apparently it would be a breach of ethics for me to do so as I might be deemed to be recommending a property listed by another Realtor. Go figure.

While there may appear at first glance to be a lot of waterfront homes for sale at the moment, the detailed analysis that a buyer at this level would undertake quickly shows that there are several different categories, by location, condition and style for example, that whittle the number down rapidly when a buyer’s criteria are considered.

And as I point out in another post this morning, the buyers at the upper end are active elsewhere. Surely the delights of summer on the water in Marblehead will attract buyers soon!

Detailed home sales for Massachusetts Counties

Please click on the link below to see the breakdown of Sold, Under AGreement and Accepted Offer (SUAGAO) stats by price bracket and County.
Counties_SUAGAO_May_17_2013

Would you like four years of college tuition payments with that mortgage, madam?

What is the difference in interest payments between a 15-year and 30-year mortgage on a $500,000 loan?

Go on, guess. $25,000? $50,000? That sounds like a lot, but it’s not even close. Total interest payments on a 30 year loan at 3 5/8 % come to over $320,000. At today’s rate of 2 7/8 %, the total on a 15 year loan would be just……$116,000. That’s a saving of $204,000 !!! Yay, Harvard for free! (more…)

Home prices down nearly 30% !!!!

What, you missed the news which was reported this week? Perhaps you were too focused on watching the stock market reach record highs.

This week’s Case-Shiller report included the following: “Measured from their June/July 2006 peaks, the peak-to-current decline for both Composites is approximately 29-30%. The recovery from the early 2012 lows is 8.7% and 9.3%, respectively.”

In simple terms, while prices nationally are up nearly 10% from their lows, they are still DOWN almost 30% from their 2006 highs.

To put that in stock market terms in a week when the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke 15,000, the equivalent for housing would be 10,500. That doesn’t sound so good. (more…)

The Flaws of the Case-Shiller Index

When the Case-Shiller index, the most widely quoted index of housing prices, reported this week Read report that home prices rose 8.6% for its 10-City index and 9.3% for the 20-City index for the year to February, the news was greeted with headlines such as CBS’s “Us Home Prices Surging”.

Well, as the Beach Boys sang a long while ago, “You Know I hate to be a Downer”, but this is a good time to remind everybody that, as I have mentioned regularly in my year end reviews, the Case-Shiller Index has serious flaws.

Dan Green in his The Mortgage Reports (www.TheMortgageReports.com) takes up the argument this week, pointing out that:
“1.The Case-Shiller Index tracks values of detached, single-family homes only
2.The Case-Shiller Index includes sales of discounted, distressed homes
3.The Case-Shiller Index publishes on a 2-month time delay

In this way, the Case-Shiller Index ignores multi-unit homes and condos; and allows its findings to be dragged down by foreclosures and short sale which sell at discounts of 20%; while applying price data from contracts written as many as 5 months ago.

Furthermore, the home index falls apart when we consider its limited scope. All real estate is local, yet the Case-Shiller Index tracks 20 U.S. cities and calls itself a “national” index. There are 3,100 municipalities in the United States. The Case-Shiller Index accounts for fewer than 1 percent of them.” (more…)

Marblehead and North Shore home sales in April

In April the number of Single Family Homes (SFHs) sold in Marblehead was 23 against 17 last year, bring the Year To Date number to 54 compared with 44 last year,

As of May 1 there were 58 SFHs with an accepted offer. Were all these to close by June 30 – which they won’t, but others not yet with an accepted offer will – total sales for the first half of the year would be around 110.

Last year’s sales reached 229, the highest total since the extraordinary 285 of 2004. We are unlikely to challenge the 2004 level but we do seem to be moving back into the 220-240 range of the early 2000s.

Condo sales so far are 6 against 7. A further 8 had accepted offers as of May 1. At this stage it seems quite likely that sales will not match last year’s 42.

For the 17 North Shore cities and towns I track, sales of SFHs increased 6% for the first four months of the year while condo sales were up 12%.