Déjà vu all over again
Here is a comment from a new listing in Marblehead this week:
First showings @ open house 4/6,7. Offers held until 4/7 5pm.
In recent weeks houses have come on the market and offers have been accepted before the first public open house. Holding offers until the end of the open house allows the seller time to receive more offers. It also encourages buyers to make their best offer, which may well be above the asking price.
Did somebody say 2004?
North Shore Housing Inventory at the beginning of April
The first quarter on the North Shore is the time of the lowest sales and also the lowest number of houses for sale. Thus, the statistics as of April 1, give only a modest indication of what the spring market will be like.
As to that, I will comment in my next post.
Here are the numbers for SFHs for 17 North Shore Cities and Towns: (more…)
Moving up the food chain
The spring market continues to build momentum, as activity is moving up the price brackets.
Let’s look at the sequence of events:
– A February snowy Sunday with the temperature below freezing. 30 people showed up at an Open House for a property listed in the low $400s and multiple offers were received.
– In March another house priced in the low $400s never reached the open market as four offers were received above the asking price.
– Last week a house priced at $600,000 sold in one day.
– Four houses listed in March between $725,000 and $875,000 had offers accepted in 5-20 days.
– This week one house listed in the low $900s and one in the $1,500s had offers accepted in less than a week.
And in the last ten days two condos listed at $389,000 and $425,000 had offers accepted in 1 and 2 days.
Here’s a list of what is available by price. The last column shows the median Days on Market (how long it has been listed for sale) for those properties still available. (more…)
Listed for $550,000; sold for $630,000
The above example appeared in a Wednesday Boston Globe article Boston-area house hunters face bidding battles.
– The sale referred to above took place in Cambridge.
– In Jamaica Plain a buyer bid 12% above a condo’s asking price.
– Redfin.com reported that 89% of Cambridge deals this year involved multiple bids.
– A friend who owns a multi family in Boston’s South End has received three unsolicited offers in the last month, and I have reported earlier about the chronic shortage of condos for sale in Boston.
The market on the North Shore tends to lag behind Boston, but there are already signs that buyers here are feeling the pressure of increased competition for the small number of properties available for sale. I have reported before on multiple bid situations over the asking price in the last few weeks. (more…)
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Real estate market remains red hot
Perhaps more important than the actual numbers – which show a continuing recovery in home prices and sales – is the tone of commentary on the announcements.
The headline above was the Associated Press’s headline of a story about this week’s data for existing home sales.
Read Article to see the data
The New York Times, referring to single family housing starts, used “Housing, ailing for years, start to recuperate”
Read article
The Wharton Public Policy Initiative pointed out that “Housing starts to Give Promising News for Economic Recovery”
Read article
(more…)
How much will home prices increase in the next decade?
According to a Bloomberg report, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) more than doubled its forecast for U.S. home price gains in 2013 to 7 percent this week, and predicts a more than 14 percent increase through 2015. Bank of America Corp. (BAC) said last week property values will jump 8 percent this year, up from a prior estimate of 4.7 percent in a report titled “Someone say house party?”
I have previously written that I expect any surprise in 2013 to be on the upside. I also reported a recent open house in Marblehead on a snowy and blustery day when 30 people showed up and multiple offers were received. Then last week before a new property came on the open market it received several offers above the asking price.
(more…)
What every oceanfront property buyer should do NOW
Some oceanfront houses get battered by storms time and time again, while others remain unscathed.
What is the difference?
Largely, it is a question of the direction the house faces and the protection – or lack of it – from the elements, mainly water and wind.
If you are looking for an oceanfront property, what you should do this weekend is get in your car and drive around the areas in which you are interested. And take a compass with you (I find the compass on my iPhone unreliable).
(more…)
Is this why the housing market is heating up?
The stock market hit an all-time high this week, unemployment dropped to 7.7%, and the Federal Reserve reported that Americans have regained the $16 trillion in wealth lost during the Great Recession.
In contrast, home prices nationally remain, depending on the index, up to 30% below peak levels, while mortgage rates are at all-time lows.
Plus, as I reported last week, home ownership between 2004 and 0212 declined by 3.6% or some 4 million households.
Add to that an historically low level of houses for sale, and what do you get?
In classical economic theory, the relation between supply and demand determines the price of a commodity. As demand for an item increases, prices rise. When manufacturers respond to the price increase by producing a larger supply of that item, this increases competition and drives the price down
Demand is up and increasing
Supply is at historic lows
New housing starts remain well below “normal” levels and can’t be increased quickly
Based on the above, where do you think prices are headed in 2013?
Associated Press; March 7, 2013
WASHINGTON — It took five years, but surging stock prices and steady home-price increases have finally allowed Americans to regain the $16 trillion in wealth they lost to the Great Recession.
(more…)
The most important website for first time and Veteran homebuyers
For many first time home buyers the process can seem intimidating, but information available on the internet can help the buyer become well informed and able to be in control of the process.
This website North Shore Home Programs provides a remarkable amount of information, ranging from a step-by-step guide to home buying, to a list of programs available to help with down payments.
The greatest gift of the internet is the way it empowers the consumer through knowledge. Spending a little time on this website, and then googling “first time home buyer”, will go a long way to giving power to you, the buyer.
Knowledge helps to remove intimidation from the process of buying your first home.
Foreclosure activity in Massachusetts continues to drop
Foreclosure petitions down 30%
Foreclosure deeds down 63%
Foreclosure auction announcements down 80%
The Warren Group; March 5, 2013
Read article
“Local housing market, packed with eager buyers, is desperately seeking home sellers”
If you have been reading my articles in the last couple of months it will come as no surprise to read today’s front page article in the Boston Globe about the severe shortage of homes for sale. While this article is written about Boston it applies just as much to our North Shore communities.
The message is clear: if you have been waiting to sell, wait no longer! And if you have been thinking of buying or trading up, wait no longer! (more…)
Home ownership in MA exceeds national average for first time ever in 2012
It came as a shock to me to discover that home ownership in MA had trailed overall numbers for the US ever since 1900 – until 2012 that is.
First look at this table from 1900 to 2010:
Source: US Census Bureau (more…)
There is no housing bubble. Really?
When I saw this headline I wondered if I had done a mini Rip van Winkle and fallen asleep for a few years. But no, it was a headline this week in an article read here referring to Southern California.
As America appears to be ready to go on a national diet after many years of super-sizing I found myself wondering if housing terminology were going through a similar metamorphosis. (more…)
Is it time to trade up?
Last Sunday, as you may recall, was a cold, snowy, stormy day. Harborside had a new listing and planned an open house, but the broker wondered whether anybody would venture out in the snow. Should he cancel the open house? He decided to go ahead and see if anybody would show up.
Um. Some 30 people “showed up” and the result was multiple offers for the property. (more…)
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