Marblehead’s Housing Inventory jumps
After many months when Marblehead’s housing inventory was running sharply below that of a year ago, the position has improved in the last few weeks – at least for buyers. Here are tables showing the month by month totals, and the current inventory by price, for Single Family Homes (SFH): (more…)
How quickly are homes selling in Boston?
According to a recent report from Redfin, homes in the Boston area (see map below) sold at record speed in May: (more…)
Housing market: 7 reasons for optimism
MarketWatch.com published Housing market can’t lose this week.The main reasons for optimism are:
Prices: rising but at a moderate rate
Equity: as prices rise so more homeowners have equity in their homes – now up to 90% of all mortgaged properties
First-time homebuyers: loans to first-time homebuyers are now the highest in 22 years of surveys from the American Bankers Association
Foreclosures: the number of loans in foreclosure is the lowest since 2007.
Construction: both starts and permits are showing strong momentum
Supply: nationally 4.8 months, below the 6 months considered to reflect a market in equilibrium between and sellers. Listings are 15% lower than a year ago.
Family net worth: has reached a new record. (more…)
What the blue blazes does this mean?
A long time ago – make that a very long time ago – I had a German master at school whose favourite expression was “what the blue blazes do you think you are doing, boy?”, at some impropriety.
Well, in a different field, I read the following comment on the housing market. My question is: “what the blue blazes are you saying about the housing market” Because I have no idea. (more…)
Housing Inventory still down heading to July 4
As we head towards July 4th, often the target date for home buyers wanting to be in their new homes for the start of the school year, housing inventory remains well down from a year ago. (more…)
Impact of overrides on Marblehead’s tax rate
By a vote of nearly 3 to 1 this week, Marblehead voters authorized an additional $8 million for the landfill capping and transfer station projects.
What does this mean for Marblehead’s tax rate? (more…)
John Kerry or a 6 car heated garage?
Yesterday I posted How much would you pay to be John Kerry’s neighbor? about a house in Louisburg Square in Boston, listed by Brewster & Berkowitz (www.brewberk.com).
Today comes a listing from Robert Paul Properties (www.RobertPaul.com) of a nearby Beacon Hill house at 77 Chestnut Street. Here’s a comparison between the two houses: (more…)
Even CNBC doesn’t understand the bond market
Bond market lesson 1: when prices go up (generally considered a good thing by investors) the yield goes down. (more…)
How much would you pay to be John Kerry’s neighbor?
This Louisburg Square home is in “one of the most prestigious of neighborhoods in the country”, according to the listing from Brewster & Berkowitz (www.brewberk.com), with John Kerry as a neighbour.
Source: Brewster & Berkowitz
Mortgage rates “will reach 4.5% by year end”
In a report this week the Mortgage Bankers Association stated: “Our forecast has mortgage rates increasing to about 4.5% by the end of 2015, and rising further next year.” Click here to read the full forecast.
Mortgage rates do fluctuate and vary from lender to lender. For example, despite the headlines, it was possible to find quotes at the end of this week for 30 year jumbo mortgages under 4%, while both 15 year FRMs and 5/1 ARMs were available at 3 1/8%. (more…)
Marblehead pace of accepted offers doubles
I have been looking at accepted offers and this is what I have discovered for Marblehead this year vs last year:
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
Mortgage rates spike; will housing market collapse?
I have been warning for some time Mortgages rates: how low can they go?, Have mortgage rates bottomed?, Mortgage rates are rising that mortgage rates were likely to rise and this week they did spike, with the 30 year Fixed Rate Mortgage (FRM) at National Grand Bank in Marblehead increasing from 3.75% to 4%, with the likelihood that the rate will move to 4 1/8% on Monday after movement in the bond market on Friday.
The second part of the headline refers to a number of comments I have heard in the last few days about how the spike in mortgage rates may kill off the still-recovering housing market. It won’t. (more…)
How accurate are online property estimates?
As I have been known to poke gentle fun at Trulia’s “market”analysis for Marblehead (they seem to record only a tiny fraction of sales) it is only fair that I post this excellent Trulia article about the accuracy of online estimates of value.
Source: Zillow
Marblehead: sales jumping, inventory plunging
Since May 15, 23 Single Family Homes (SFH) have received an offer in Marblehead, while there are currently just 67 SFHs for sale, compared with 116 a year ago at this time, a decline of over 40%. But the position for buyers may be even worse than it appears.
One of the numbers I follow is the number of days a property has been on the market (DOM). Last year MLS introduced a new measure, Days to Offer (DTO), which – yes- the number of days a property is on the market before it receives an accepted offer.
A house receives the greatest attention, from both buyers and agents, when it first comes on the market, but as time moves on the listing becomes stale. In an active market such as exists now, a property sees the most activity and interest in the first 30 days.
With that in mind, let’s look at three categories: current inventory, pending sales and sales so far in 2015. In each case I will show a pie chart of the overall picture (at the end of the article are tables showing the breakdown by price band). I’ll summarize and add my conclusions after the charts.
Current Inventory (more…)
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