North Shore housing inventory by town: supply remains tight overall
After increasing from 3 months of supply in April to 4 months in July, the inventory of Single Family Homes (SFHs) tightened very slightly to 3.9 months at the beginning of August.
Meanwhile, the supply of condos continued to decrease. After going from 3.8 months in April to 4.7 months in June, as the summer selling season got into its stride, supply has dropped for two months in a row down to the current 3.9 months.
With 6 months of supply generally regarded as representing a market in equilibrium between buyers and sellers, it is clear that overall the North Shore remains a sellers’ market. But there are wide differences from town to town and, as we shall see in my next post, by price level.
Two things to bear in mind: this late in the summer season it is normal for new supply to slow up. And the condo market seems to be picking up some speed in a number of markets, such as Marblehead, which had been quiet earlier in the year.
Here are the numbers. L12M is the number of sales in the Last 12 months.
First, SFH summary for the last 5 months:
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
and then in detail by town:
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
And then condos. First the summary for the last 5 months:
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
and in detail by town:
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
Hi Andrew,
Great charts for the SF and CC markets on the North Shore from April to August of this year. Does N/M mean none on market or not measureable? Confused by that in your charts. Also noticed that Manchester-by-the-Sea has same amount of SF homes available as sold for SF( 48) and for CC (4). It seems odd as no other towns have the same number of solds and availables and also so odd that Manchester has so much higher absorption rate than all the other towns for SF and second only to Wenham for CC. Very interesting data and it will be helpful when we have the full years’ worth of stats to compare at each quarter mark:Jan.-April-August-Dec. to see how 2013 compared overall to 2012. Thank you so much and I look forward to more great info from you!
All the best,
Lynne
Lynne: my apologies for not making myself clear. By N/M I mean Not Meaningful and I usually apply that to numbers that are very small. In fact I really should put N/M for condos in Boxford, Georgetown, Hamilton, Manchester, Nahant and Wenham, all of which have annual sales in single digits. A change in one or two units sold can be a big percentage change but has no significance.
As for Manchester, the fact that the supply of both SFHs and condos stands at the same level is just a co-incidence, and as I have said above I should report condos as N/M. But I think it is significant that the supply of SFHs, at 12 months, is more than double the North Shore average. Bearing in mind my comments about the low level of sales at the higher end, it is perhaps not surprising that Manchester, where the median price is around $700,000, and where 34 of the 48 SFHs currently available are listed above $1 million, is seeing a high level of inventory.