New Listings mid-week February 5
These re the most recent New Listings, including two Oceanfront properties on Marblehead Neck:
Click on these links for details:
Marblehead New Listings
Swampscott New Listings
Salem New Listings
Beverly New Listings
Lynn New Listings
and click New Listings to check other towns.
Will house prices continue to rise in 2020?
Are You Thinking of Selling in 2020?
Swampscott: now is a GREAT time to sell
Andrew Oliver
Market Analyst | Team Harborside | teamharborside.com
REALTOR®
Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty
One Essex Street | Marblehead, MA 01945
m 617.834.8205
www.OliverReports.com
Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com
Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
Swampscott Homeowners: now is a GREAT time to sell
The lack of housing inventory has been a feature of markets for several years, but nowhere to my knowledge has reached the situation currently prevailing in Swampscott.
Guess how many Single Family Homes are for sale currently? Just 12. Let me repeat that – there are 12 SFHs for sale in Swampscott. A town which has 3,462 SFHs.
And wait, there is more. (more…)
How did North Shore Home Prices Perform in the last Decade?
The decade from 2010-2019 saw a remarkably consistent record of Single Family Home Price increases throughout the North Shore and Essex County.
For the purposes of comparison I have converted all prices to a base of 100 for 2009.
The first chart shows the performance of Marblehead, Swampscott, Salem, Beverly and Essex County as a whole. If you look at the numbers for 2019 you can see how consistent the performance was, with a 50% increase over the decade.
(more…)
Open Houses on Super Bowl Sunday
A strange day ahead as for some reason the Patriots are not playing in the Super Bowl today. It will be mild for these Open Houses: (more…)
The 29 best things to do around Boston this February
In The 29 best things to do around Boston this February the Globe suggests 29 reasons to brave the chill – one for each day, although I am not sure there should be one for tomorrow when the temperature will be in the 50s.
I am guessing this may prove a favourite:
New Listings week ending January 31
A very small number of new listings over the last week:
Click on these links for details:
Marblehead New Listings
Swampscott New Listings
Salem New Listings
Beverly New Listings
Lynn New Listings (more…)
Housing Inventory slump continues
Single Family Homes (SFH)
After years of decline, the number of Single Family Homes (SFH) for sale in Essex County on the first of the month compared with a year earlier (YOY) increased from August 2018 until June 2019. Since then the decline has resumed and, in fact, accelerated, as this table shows:
Open Houses February 1/2
Another mild weekend ahead for these Open Houses (don’t forget to check back tomorrow at 8 a.m. for an updated list for Sunday): (more…)
New Listings mid-week January 29
These are the most recent new listings: (more…)
Twenty Questions with Marblehead’s Assessor
The FY2020 (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020) tax rate has been set at $10.39, down from $10.74 in FY2019. While the median single family (SFH) assessment increased 7.0%, or $44,000, to $674,000, the median SFH tax bill increased by half that – 3.5% – or $236, to $7,003. The commercial rate has once again been set at the same level as the residential rate.
Note that the tax rate includes the cost of debt exclusions (mainly for school construction and items like the new transfer station) voted by residents. Debt service accounts for $0.98 of the 2020 tax rate, down from $1.02 in 2019. Excluding the cost of debt service, the tax rate fell from $9.72 to $9.41.
Marblehead’s 2020 tax rate will again be the second lowest of the 34 cities and towns in Essex County. The highest rate in Essex County belongs to Wenham at $18.94; the lowest Rockport at $10.10; and the median is $13.68.
Approximately 75% of Marblehead’s revenue comes from property taxes. (more…)
Open Houses Sunday January 26
Sunny and mild – perfect weather to visit these open Houses: (more…)
8 Kitchen and Bathroom Trends for 2020
Dark colors, transitional style and personalization were featured at Design & Construction Week, held in Las Vegas this week.
[houzz=https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/130559031/list/8-kitchen-and-bathroom-trends-from-kbis-and-ibs-2020 w=380]
Will house prices continue to rise in 2020?
Are You Thinking of Selling in 2020?
Andrew Oliver
Market Analyst | Team Harborside | teamharborside.com
REALTOR®
Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty
One Essex Street | Marblehead, MA 01945
m 617.834.8205
www.OliverReports.com
Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com
Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
Open Houses weekend January 25/26
Here are the currently posted Open Houses for this weekend. Remember to check back tomorrow at 8 a.m. for an updated list for Sunday. (more…)
Will house prices continue to rise in 2020?
Many years ago, during my investment banking career, I hired a young analyst to write a report on a very successful company, which had grown earnings for 12 years in a row. This analyst wanted to downgrade the shares because: “they have been growing for 12 years and cannot continue to grow.”
Needless to say (I hope) I changed the conclusion on the report.
Why is that relevant to the housing market outlook for 2020? The market has seen annual increases since 2010, so it has risen for the last 9 years. So it can’t continue, right?
Well, why not?
I have often written about the law of supply and demand.
According to the National Association of realtors (NAR): “Total housing inventory at the end of December totaled 1.40 million units, down 14.6% from November and 8.5% from one year ago (1.53 million). Unsold inventory sits at a 3.0-month supply at the current sales pace, down from the 3.7-month figure recorded in both November and December 2018. Unsold inventory totals have dropped for seven consecutive months from year-ago levels, taking a toll on home sales.”
Meanwhile: the median existing-home price for all housing types in December was up 7.8% from December 2018, as prices rose in every region. November’s price increase marks 94 straight months of year-over-year gains. “Price appreciation has rapidly accelerated, and areas that are relatively unaffordable or declining in affordability are starting to experience slower job growth,” Yun said. “The hope is for price appreciation to slow in line with wage growth, which is about 3%.”
In Essex County, the inventory of Single Family Homes (SFH) for sale, after declining for several years, increased Year-on-Year from August 2018 to June 2019. But since then inventory has declined and that declined has accelerated:
And the supply makes availability nationally seem like an abundance:
Recently, one of my sons was badly injured in a fall while hiking in Nepal. My younger son flew out to be with him. Each day we got medical updates which were full of information. My younger son would ask what his condition was and was told still critical. “That’s all that matters,” he said, “the rest is just noise.”
At the end of 2018 in an article entitled Is a recession coming soon? I concluded by saying this:
“At the moment it (consumer confidence) is intact. As long as that remains so the likelihood for 2019 is a slowing, but still growing, economy and a stable housing market.”
And earlier: “While the increase in the Fed Funds rate has been getting a lot of publicity very recently, the Fed has actually been raising rates – and indicating that it planned to continue to do so – for 3 years, with the first increase coming in December 2015.It could be argued that the more rapid increase in rates this year has been in response to the major stimulus from the tax cuts earlier in the year. It could further be argued that, on the evidence so far, the Fed has been successful in helping to slow growth to a sustainable level, thereby curbing inflationary pressures which would necessitate even higher interest rates.”
There has been a lot of noise over the last year. A lot. But the economy remains strong: not super strong but chugging along quite nicely. With low unemployment, low mortgage rates and low inventory, the law of supply and demand will continue to apply and suggest that house prices, which grew faster than I had expected in the second half of 2019 as supply dwindled again, will continue on the upward path of the last 9 years.
Read Are You Thinking of Selling in 2020?
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside
Sotheby’s International Realty
www.OliverReports.com
www.andrewJoliver.com
Tel: 617.834.8205
Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
New Listings week ending January 24
Here are the New Listings over the last week:
Click on these links for details:
Marblehead New Listings
Swampscott New Listings
Salem New Listings
Beverly New Listings
Lynn New Listings
and click Other towns to check new listings in any Massachusetts town.
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside
Sotheby’s International Realty
www.andrewJoliver.com
www.OliverReports.com
Tel: 617.834.8205
Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
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