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:
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
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…)
Did you miss my post about property taxes
Judging by the number of post views it appears that many regular readers missed my post last Sunday, just before the Super Bowl started, explaining how property taxes are calculated.
The easiest way to make sure you do not miss posts is to register to receive email alerts of new posts. This ensures that you do not miss articles and allows you to read those which are of interest to you.
To register go to the home page at www.OliverReports.com and on the right hand side, below the page titles you will see this:
Enter your email address, hit Subscribe and click CONFIRM FOLLOW in the email you will receive instantly.
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].
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
@OliverReports
Luxury condo shortage in Boston !
It may come as a surprise – it did to me – but despite the booming luxury condo market in the last few years, Boston is actually facing a shortage of luxury condos, according to this article Luxury condo shortage – believe it or not by Scott Van Vorhis on boston.com. (more…)
No writing this week
My outburst of articles last Friday-Monday was, in part, because I was having hand surgery this week and I thought that typing afterwards would be difficult.
It is. I hope to be able to resume typing next week. (more…)
Reasons to Sell your Home in Winter
Today’s Boston Globe carries this article Why selling in winter may be a good idea.
In addition to the benefits mentioned – less inventory means less competition for sellers, while those buyers who are out there are serious – I would add that mortgage rates have dropped sharply already this year and are not far off record lows. See my Mortgage rates: how low can they go? post from yesterday. (more…)
Why I don’t rely on Trulia
Let me start by saying that I think sites like Trulia and Zillow provide a useful service in terms of informing buyers about things like Open Houses. I also like the feature on Zillow that shows the price and tax history of a property listed for sale.
Where I have a problem with such sites is when they quote “statistics”. The danger with statistics always lies with the way they can be presented to give an impression of authority even when the statistics themselves are meaningless. It is always, always essential to be clear what is included in quoted statistics. If it is not clear do not rely on the numbers quoted!
What drives this comment? I had an email yesterday from Trulia entitled Marblehead Weekend Update. Prominently displayed was a box saying:
Source: Zillow
What the you know what? $289,000!!! (more…)
Would the Olympics be good for the Boston area real estate market?
The decision will not be made until 2017 but I looked to see if there was any data on the impact hosting the Olympics has on the host city’s real estate market.
This Olympics: a win for the housing market? article from yourmoney.com looks at the impact the Olympics have had on real estate markets in recent Olympics and argues that the impact is most significant in smaller cities which implement major infrastructure improvements.
f 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].
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
Dreams, real estate, murder and war
I awoke this morning, blog day, at 5:20 am with a vivid image in my head of a blog post entitled “The Rousseau property market.” A quick search of my “mind” showed me that the Rousseau referenced was Jean-Jacques, the 18th Century Swiss philosopher whose writings influenced the French Revolution, not Conrad, the Marblehead mortgage lender.
But what was the link with real estate?
I found this quote:”The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said “This is mine,” and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.”
Wow, I know that people can become quite passionate about real estate, but wars and murders?
A word of advice for Conrad: stick to mortgage lending.
And a word of advice to me: take a sleeping pill next Friday night.
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].
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
Do Real Estate Agents Work over New Year?
Well it seems that some do and some don’t.
The starting point of all my data is MLS and so the timing of my reports depends on when real estate agents update their pending listings to actual closed sales, or change the anticipated sale date. Agents in Beverly , Marblehead and Swampscott are clearly hard workers and I have published reports on those markets. There are, of course, other markets where I am sure the same applies but I do not publish individual stats on all 351 cities and towns! (more…)
Marblehead 2014 housing market reaches new high
Here are the highlights of the market in Marblehead in 2014.
Single Family Homes (SFHs)
– the median SFH price increased 10.3% to a record high of $590,000, beating the previous peak of $585,000 in 2006
– sales of SFHs increased to 245, the best year since 2004
– the Assessed Value to Sales Ratio (ASR*) dropped from 90.5% to 88.0% overall, an indication of rising prices
Condos
– the median condo price in 2014 was down 0.6% to $328,000. Because the condo market is small and bifurcated in Marblehead I will break the numbers down into segments in a later report
– sales were 43, much the same as the two previous years and, in fact, in line with the average for the last 9 years
– the ASR* dropped from 94.5% to 88.5%
Property Taxes
The tax rate for FY2015 is $11.08, virtually unchanged from $11.09 in FY2014. The average tax bill will increase by $309 or 4%. (more…)
Falling oil prices should be good for real estate markets
This Economist article Why the oil price is falling explains the background to falling oil prices which should, in general, be good for the US economy next year and by extension good for the real estate market which, having largely recovered from the Great Recession, is now more dependent upon economic growth for continued gains.
The table below shows forecasts from IHS Global Insight for the US economy in 2015 at different average oil prices: (more…)
What Jon Lester can afford to buy in Chicago
While Jon Lester’s sale of his Newton home Why Jon Lester may not be returning to the Rex Sox did not necessarily indicate that he would not be coming back to the Red Sox, he is in fact going to Chicago. For $155 million for 6 years.
Which raises the question, obviously, of where he will live. (more…)
Check carefully before you buy that Greek Island
While, in the words of the Wall Street Journal, buying a Greek Island “drenched in sunshine and surrounded by turquoise water”may be the ultimate property dream, there are a few pitfalls of which buyers need to be aware. (more…)
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