How much does parking add to the value of a home?
I often wonder how long our memories are. In mid-winter it seems to me the entire population of New England is thinking of moving to Florida, but I suspect that come next winter we will not find deserted cities.Don’t we just love having something to complain about?
After a winter like this one everybody wants to have a home with parking – in cities – or with a garage in the suburbs and outer towns. But how much is that convenience worth?
Here’s a Boston Herald article which describes the value of parking in Boston’s neighborhoods. (more…)
Baghdad could have been a Frank Lloyd Wright mega- City
Spurred on by an influx of oil money and the temptation of a looming Olympic bid, in the 1950s, King Faisal II enlisted a coterie of architectural heavyweights—Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Josep Lluís Sert, and Alvar and Aino Aalto—to reimagine Baghdad as a bustling, cosmopolitan city.
I came across this fascinating article on curbed.com. The King was assassinated in 1958 and the plans died with the young king. As explained by Robert Twombly, “the people needed food, clothing and shelter more than floating gardens, gold fountains, and a mammoth zoo.”
No doubt Iraqis felt the same way about Saddam Hussein’s palaces. (more…)
How much business has been lost to the weather?
Anecdotally, we know that small businesses have been affected by this winter’s weather but now we know by how much following a survey by the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.
The main points are:
– overall sales fell 24% with a 7% drop in payroll
– restaurant sales fell 49% with a 14% drop in payroll
While it is tempting to buy everything from Amazon when the weather outside is foul, when the weather improves we should all make a point to SHOP LOCALLY! (more…)
Essex County Housing Inventory by town
Here is a town by town breakdown of inventory compared with a year ago.
(more…)Essex County Housing Inventory at low levels
Low inventory has, rightly, been cited as a factor frustrating many would-be home buyers. But how low is inventory currently?
Here is the answer, comparing today’s supply with that a year ago, for Essex County, first for Single Family Homes (SFHs). To put these numbers into perspective, the total represents just over two months of sales based upon the last year. A market with six months of supply is generally regarded as one being in equilibrium between buyers and sellers.
Sales are, of course, lower in winter, but nevertheless these numbers suggest a severe shortage of homes for sale as we move towards spring. (more…)
Why home prices will go up in 2015
I have been asked more than once recently when the supply of homes for sale will increase and return to more normal levels.
My answer is that the improving economy, increased job security and higher incomes, unexpectedly low mortgage rates, and the realisation that real estate has not appreciated as much as other asset classes all combine to create a market with more buyers than sellers.
And we know what happens when demand exceeds supply – prices go up. And higher prices are what I think it will take to get more inventory onto the market.
If you – or somebody you know – are considering buying or selling a home and have questions about the market and/or current home prices, feel free to contact me on 617.834.8205 or Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com.
Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
You can REGISTER to receive email alerts of new posts on the right hand side of the home page at www.OliverReports.com.
@OliverReports
Farewell February: we shall not miss you
“Stay not upon the order of thy going but go” are, according to my memory, the words spoken by Lady Macbeth. But when I checked, I found the actual quotation is:”Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once.” I don’t wish to criticise Shakespeare but I actually prefer my version.
And either is better than the “modern” text version:”Don’t bother exiting in the order of your rank, but just leave right away.”
How can anybody take the majesty of Shakespeare’s prose and turn it into such prosaic English is beyond me.
It reminds me of the story I heard of a young Rabbi explaining to a man in his new congregation that the rewriting of Psalm 23, in which “my cup runneth over” became “my cup overflows”, was to make the meaning clearer. Unconvinced, the man replied:”Rabbi, my cup runneth over, it’s my toilet which overflows.”
And what, if anything, does this have to do with real estate you may be asking?
Well, I suspect a lot of people are fearing that the snow will be on the ground well into – I won’t say spring, but let’s say April. People will stay indoors, home owners won’t be able to get their houses ready for sale, and the housing market will freeze (ho ho!) up.
How long the snow will remain on the ground is, therefore, a factor in the housing market. Earlier in the week I posted The snow may disappear earlier than you think quoting Dave Epstein (@growingwisdom). Epstein has now posted another excellent article Spring really is coming. Well, that’s not the actual title of the article, but again I like my version better than the author’s.
The article explain how the hours and intensity of sun shine will increase dramatically over the next three weeks. As Epstein says:”This increase in solar radiation will start to rapidly melt the snow and transform our barren landscape.” The transformation may also extend to the real estate market. Whether you are a buyer or seller, it is time to get ready to act.
I had an email recently from a frustrated buyer who has been looking for over a year for a house to buy. He asked what it will take to increase the very low inventory of houses for sale. Here is my answer: Why home prices will go up in 2015.
If you – or somebody you know – are considering buying or selling a home and have questions about the market and/or current home prices, feel free to contact me on 617.834.8205 or Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com.
Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
You can REGISTER to receive email alerts of new posts on the right hand side of the home page at www.OliverReports.com.
@OliverReports
The snow may disappear sooner than you think
On this morning of extreme cold, when we may fear that this winter will never end, there is good news from Boston.com’s excellent meteorologist David Epstein (@growingwisdom) in this When will we see bare ground? article. (more…)
The best and worst performing real estate markets
I have read a number of articles recently about the best and worst real estate markets but none of them mentioned Essex County. This article corrects that oversight.
The first table follows the pattern of many articles in looking at the extent of the recovery since 2009: (more…)
How do I know if I have an ice dam?
In recent weeks we have all learned to toss the phrase “ice dam” into our conversation with friends and neighbors, but what exactly is an ice dam, how do we tell if we have one, and what should be do about them?
Here’s an Ice dam guide from today’s Boston Globe.
The most popular tip may be number 7. (more…)
Marblehead housing market: “there’s nothing to buy”
If only the snow would shrink as quickly as Marblehead’s housing inventory.
Buyers are surprising active given the weather:
While sellers appear to have hibernated: there are just 19 houses for sale currently under $1 million. (more…)
Home automation: yes, but can it shovel snow?
Control lights, appliances, garage doors, and thermostats from your mobile device, even when you’re not at home. Get a text message when the front door opens. Monitor security cameras to make sure your kids are home safe.
But can it shovel snow? Not yet. Perhaps Google should focus on developing a product to shovel snow rather than a driverless car. They’d have more buyers in New England.
Here is Crutchfield Labs’ Home automation guide. (more…)
Is it too late to “flip” houses?
Trulia recently issued a report suggesting that house flipping is a declining activity because prices aren’t increasing enough to make it profitable.
As this excellent Huffington Post article points out there are two types of house flip: one based on price appreciation; and one based on creating value by rehabbing a property. (more…)
Marblehead sales history under $1 million
After I published my Record Million Dollar Sales post with numbers for the last 15 years I was asked to do the same for sales under $1 million. Here goes – in chart form!
First, the number of sales. Note that in 2000 there were 54 sales under $300,000. That number slumped to just 1 in 2005 as prices increased. Similarly, the number of sales from $300-499k more than halved in the strong market of the early 2000s, while sales from $500-749k doubled. The trends then reversed during the slump and changed again as the market recovered.
(more…)Have mortgage rates bottomed?
That’s a bit like saying: is this weekend’s storm the last major one of the winter? The answer is….maybe. Nevertheless, mortgage rates have moved up recently, largely reversing the drop experienced in January when geopolitical factors – the usual suspects, Greece and Russia – contributed to a drop in the yield on the US 10 year Treasury from 2% to 1.7%. That yield has now recovered to 2%, and the 30 year mortgage rate is more or less back to where it was at the beginning of the year, depending on which survey you read (see below for details and comments). (more…)
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