Essex County inventory: where have all the sellers gone?
During this mild winter, buyers have remained active, taking advantage of historically low mortgage rates, but Essex County inventory remains low.
While the end of February is low season for real estate sales in New England, some of the changes in inventory at different price levels are startling. I include a chart showing the overall numbers, followed by a breakdown by price, for both SFHs and Condos.
Single Family Homes (SFH)
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
Condos
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
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 [email protected].
Read Which broker will find the buyer for my house?
Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty. 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
Essex County 2015 Housing Market Review
The SFH market in Essex County continued its recovery in 2015, with the median price increasing by 3% and sales by 10%. Both numbers are just below their prior peaks.
Median Price
The median price increased 3% in 2015 and is now just 1% below the 2005 peak.
There are always quarterly fluctuations, but for the seventh year in a row the highest median price was recorded in Q3.
Sales
Sales have bounced almost 50% from their great recession lows and were almost back to the 2004 peak.
Summary
2015 was another solid year in the recovery of the housing market in Essex County. With the Massachusetts economy strong – and the pending move of GE to Boston can only help – and mortgage rates still below 4%, the outlook for 2016 is for another year of increasing prices, which will very likely reach a new high.
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 [email protected].
Read Which broker should I choose to sell my home?
Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty. 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
GE is coming: beat the rush
Last weekend, after the announcement that GE is moving its corporate HQ to Boston, the first GE executives were spotted house-hunting in Marblehead.
For the real estate market in and around Boston the significance is not just the arrival of 800 GE employees but also the fact that GE is expected to be a draw for other technology companies, particularly those in the “Internet of Things”.
Why is GE moving to Boston?
“GE aspires to be the most competitive company in the world,” said GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt. “We want to be at the center of an ecosystem that shares our aspirations. Greater Boston is home to 55 colleges and universities. Massachusetts spends more on research & development than any other region in the world, and Boston attracts a diverse, technologically-fluent workforce focused on solving challenges for the world. We are excited to bring our headquarters to this dynamic and creative city.” (more…)
Essex County property tax rates for 2016
Essex County property tax rates for 2016 have been announced. Here is a map (so that you can compare tax rates in neighboring towns) and the changes over the last two years, followed by my comments:
Mass. Dept of Revenue
How property tax rates are calculated
I wrote How your property taxes are calculated earlier this year.
There are two main points to understand:
The dollar amount raised by property taxes is based on a simple formula: the dollar levy for the previous year plus 2 1/2% (Prop 2 1/2), plus any new growth (e.g. new construction), plus any voter-approved overrides or debt exclusions.
The tax rate is then calculated by dividing the dollar amount by the Assessed Value of all property. For FY2016 (July 2015-June 2016) Assessed Values are based upon sales during 2014.
Thus, the dollar amount will always increase from year to year, but the tax rate depends upon what happens to Assessed Values (AV). Here are examples. All assume a 4% increase in the dollar amount to be raised from taxes.The variable is the change in the AV. In the years when AVs were declining, tax rates rose. As AVs are now increasing we should expect to see tax rates flat to down.
Tax rate changes in 2016
Of the 34 cities and towns in Essex County, 14 have announced decreases in their tax rate while 20 have had increases approved.The median change was an increase of just 0.2%.
Of the decreases 7 were 1% or less, while the largest decrease was the 6.8% in West Newbury.
While there were more increases, 9 were 1% or less. The largest increase by far was the 9.9% in Ipswich.
Outlook for 2017
With one week left in the year it seems the median price of a Single Family Home in Essex County will increase about 3.5% in 2015, and it is 2015 sales which will be used in calculating FY2017 tax rates. Since the dollar amount to be raised from property taxes will naturally continue to increase, at this stage it seems reasonable to expect little overall change in tax rates for FY2017, but there will, as always, be fluctuations from town to town.
I am publishing below a downloadable spreadsheet showing tax rates by city and town for the last 5 years.
Essex County Residential tax rates_2012_16_
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 [email protected].
Read Which broker will find the buyer for my house?
Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty. 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
Sales and home prices rise in Essex County
In the first 11 months of 2015 sales and prices of both SFHs and Condos in Essex County and Massachusetts have increased at generally similar rates:
The sales increase for condos seems to be the one out of sync between Essex County and the State as a whole so I have looked at the breakdown by County, showing that sales were flat in the two largest Counties:
MLS, Oliver Reports
Overall, these numbers confirm the reports all year of a market that has returned to the normal condition of gently rising prices. (more…)
El Nino is good news for housing market
Back in July I wrote No snow this winter, a somewhat optimistic comment about the effect El Nino might have on our weather this winter.
Yesterday I read El Nino seen warming Us economy on Bloomberg, with economists quoted as saying “a milder winter supports growth in housing and consumer spending”.
The last two winters have seen unusually cold (think polar vortex) and snowy weather, and in both years the real estate market in New England got off to a slow start. With the economy growing strongly in Massachusetts (forecasts put 2015 growth at 5%), 2016 could be a very good year in the housing market, with the possibility that the gains seen in Metro Boston in the last few years will extend further outwards. (more…)
Time to think outside Marblehead Neck
You would like to buy a house on the water, but you have noticed the amount of traffic on the Neck and are concerned with exposure to storms.
So what to do?
The answer is: think outside the Neck.
Read Marblehead’s Unknown Oceanfromt properties and you may be surprised to learn that between Preston Beach and Beach Street there are 32 homes (and likely a few more when the FY2016 assessments are announced in December as this area is appreciating) with an Assessed Value over $2 million.
Two of these properties are currently for sale and details can be seen by clicking on 11 Crown Way and 2-4 Coolidge Road.
Crown Way has an Open House today 1-3 and both house will be open next Sunday (if not sold before then).
Essex County Condo market Q3 review
After steady increases in the last few years the median price* of a condo in Essex County in Q3 was up only slightly from a year ago and was unchanged for the year to date through September:
Source: MLS. Oliver Reports
Q3 Median Prices in Essex County by Town
Here below is a list of Q3 and Year to Date (YTD) median prices for single family homes (SFH) in Essex County by Town. See my comments after the table:
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
Q3 comments
While prices rose 5% in Essex County overall (and 3% in Massachusetts) there were wide variations from town to town, with 23 showing increases, 9 decreases and 2 unchanged. The largest changes came mostly, but not always, in towns with a small number of sales, something which can add to volatility in short-term numbers.
Year to Date
The larger the sample the more reliable the numbers usually, which is why I look at YTD numbers. Here we see a 3% increase in both Essex County and Massachusetts overall, while within Essex County 25 towns saw increases, 8 decreases and 1 unchanged.
Summary
The median price of a SFH in Essex County is just under $400,000 YTD (and just over in Q3). There is one town with a median price over $700,000 and 5 over $600,000. At the other end there is no longer a town with a median price under $200,000 and only 4 under $300,000 ( and 3 of those may well climb above $300,000 before very long).
Overall, with mortgage rates under 4%, the market in Essex County seems to have returned to a fairly normal pattern of modestly increasing prices.
As always I am very happy to provide more details on any individual town – just ask.
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 [email protected].
Read How should I choose the broker to sell my home?
Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty. 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
Supply of houses for sale after Labor Day
As we enter the second phase of the 2015 home-buying season, I have looked at the supply of houses for sale after Labor Day and compared it with this time last year for every city and town in Essex County.
Overall, the supply has dropped from 4.4 months* to 3.9 for Essex County overall (and from 5.4 months to 4.7 for the whole of Massachussetts). The number of towns with supply of less than 3 months has increased from 6 to 10, while the number with more than 10 months of supply has dropped from 4 to 1. (more…)
Time to buy that oceanfront property?
Both the stock market and Boston condos have enjoyed a great run in prices in the last few years, in part due to the policy of keeping interest rates extremely low. One area that has not participated in the recent upturn, however, has been oceanfront property on the North Shore. Maybe Boston condo owners should be asking whether now is time to buy that oceanfront property. (more…)
Sales and Median Prices Town by Town
As promised in my Are home sales really booming? article this weekend I am now publishing a town by town guide to Sales and Median Prices for the year through August. (more…)
Can Dukakis and Weld bring the North Shore respect?
I get fed up reading articles about real estate in Eastern Massachusetts which routinely ignore the North Shore and Essex County, so I was intrigued to read Build the North-South rail link in this week’s Boston Globe, a coherent and logical argument in favor of connecting Boston’s North and South stations by rail. (more…)
Lynn Mid-Year 2015 Housing Market Review
The first half of the year in Lynn saw a 6% increase in the median price of a Single Family Home (SFH), steady sales and a shortage of inventory.
Median Prices
The median price for the first half of 2015 was $269,000, up 6% from $249,900 in 2014, but still 10% below the 2005 peak of $293,000:
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
In Essex County overall, the median SFH price in the first half of 2015 was $385,000, less than 2% below the 2005 peak of $390,000. (more…)
Essex County Mid-Year Housing Review
In the first half of 2015 the median price of a Single Family Home (SFH) increased slightly, while sales were basically flat, despite the low inventory. Distressed sales – foreclosures and short sales – were steady year on year, but are way down from the levels of 2010-2012.
Median Prices
The median price for the first half of 2015 was $385,000, up from $380,000 in 2014, and close to the 2005 peak of $390,000..
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
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