The US is 3.8 Million Homes Short

The U.S. housing market needs nearly 4 million single-family homes to meet the nation’s demand, according to a new analysis from Freddie Mac. The 3.8 million shortfall marks a 52% increase in the housing shortage since 2018.

“This is what you get when you underbuild for 10 years,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “We should have almost four million more housing units if we had kept up with demand the last few years.”

Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of REALTORS®, has been among real estate economists leading the calls over the last few years for greater inventory and more homebuilding to meet demand. “We need to build more homes,” Yun told NPR, adding that since the housing crisis more than a decade ago, homebuilders have been building too few homes.

The housing shortage mixed with strong buyer demand since the pandemic is prompting home prices to rise rapidly. The median existing-home price for all housing types in February was $313,000, up 15.8% compared to a year earlier, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

Click here to read the article. (more…)

Essex County Housing Market Q1 2021 Review

  • The median price of Single-Family Homes (SFH) sold in Q1 2021increased 11% to $550,000 from Q1 2020,  but was in line with the $555,000 in the second half of the year 2020.
  • Every one of the 34 cities and towns in Essex County saw Year-on-Year (YOY) increases in the median selling price; only 6 of the 34 cities and towns recorded a median SFH price under $500,000, while 3 saw that figure exceed $1 million.
  • Numbers in any Q, especially Q1, need to be treated with caution: some of the largest apparent increases in median prices occurred on a small number of sales.
  • The Condo median sales price increased 9.9% to $365,000. In Boston, the median price was very similar to the levels of the last 3 years, during which time the Essex County Condo median price has increased some 20%.

 

Essex County Housing Market

For a more detailed report on the market in Q1 go to Team Harborside’s website and read: Essex County Q1 Market Review (more…)

New Listings week ending April 16

Still a small number of New Listings:

New Listings
Click on these links for details: (more…)

Open Houses weekend April 17/18

Here are the weekend’s Open Houses. Be aware that with such low inventory, many new listings receive offers before the weekend Open Houses.
This list will be updated on Sunday morning (because of the quirks of MLS many of the Sunday Open Houses don’t show up on Saturday.)

Open Houses
Click on these links for details: (more…)

New Listings mid-week April 14

A modest number of New Listings this week:

New Listings>

Click on these links for details: (more…)

Open Houses weekend April 10/11

Here are the weekend’s Open Houses. Be aware that with such low inventory, many new listings receive offers before the weekend Open Houses.
This list will be updated on Sunday morning (because of the quirks of MLS many of the Sunday Open Houses don’t show up on Saturday.)

Click on these links for details: (more…)

New Listings week ending April 9

A few more New Listings:

New Listings
Click on these links for details: (more…)

New Listings after Easter

A modest increase in New Listings this week:

New Listings

Click on these links for details:
Marblehead New Listings
Swampscott New Listings
Salem New Listings
Beverly New Listings
Lynn New Listings

These tables show that inventory is greatly reduced from a year ago, when levels were already low: (more…)