Million Dollar Home Sales hit new record in Marblehead
Record Sales
Sales of Marblehead homes over a Million Dollars have hit a new record in 2014. The previous peak was 36 in 2005, and this year we already have 38 closed sales with a further 5 scheduled to close before year end for a total of 43.
Sales by price bracket (more…)
Homes for sale in Essex County plummet in recent years
This week I am looking at the number of Single Family Homes (SFHs) for sale, as a follow up to last week’s Where have all the Condo sellers gone? article. In that article I pointed out that the number of condos for sale, in both Marblehead and Essex County, was down some 70% from the levels seen in the 2006/07 period, and offered some thoughts on why that might be. (more…)
Where have all the Condo sellers gone?
I have noticed for some time that the number of condos for sale in Marblehead has been low compared with the days of my old Marblehead Reporter articles (2008-11) when my memory said there always seemed to be 50 or more for sale.
I checked the numbers for today and compared them over the last 10 years. The questions that came to mind were: was this just a Marblehead phenomenon? Was it maybe because of the time of the year? And if not, what was the reason for the decline? (more…)
Essex County Third Quarter Housing Review
The Single Family Home (SFH) market
The median price of a SFH in Essex County in Q3 2014 was flat compared with a year earlier, but Q3 2013 was the quarter with the highest median price of the year. Note that quarterly prices nearly always fluctuate to some extent during the year; it is very rare for prices to rise steadily throughout the year. Q3 has seen the highest price of the year in each of the last 4 years.
The record median price for the year was $394,400 in 2005 and it looks as though 2014 will be in the region of $385,000 so we are very close to returning to that previous peak. (more…)
Swampscott Third Quarter Housing Review
The Single Family (SFH) market
After enjoying good price gains in 2013 the median price in 2014 has been more or less flat all year. And the full year’s median price seems likely to come in as much as 15% below the peak of 2005: (more…)
Salem Third Quarter Housing Review
The Single Family Home (SFH) market
The market continued to improve in Q3 and it looks like the full year to be very close to, or even slightly exceed, the previous high of $349,000 in 2005: (more…)
Beverly Third Quarter Housing Review
The Single Family Home (SFH) market
The median price in Beverly in Q3 was flat with a year ago, consistent with the trend in Essex County overall. While prices have recovered from the effects of the great recession, the 2014 number is likely to come in some 4-5% below the peak level of $400,000 in 2004. (more…)
Housing Market 2014 – the first nine months
As promised last week I am publishing numbers for the first 9 months of 2014. These show that for Essex County and Massachusetts overall, sales of Single Family Homes (SFHs) are down slightly year-on-year, while prices are up slightly. There are, however, quite wide fluctuations from town to town: (more…)
Third Quarter Housing Review
Third quarter numbers for sales and median prices support the argument I have been making in recent weeks that we are now in a more stable market, having recovered from the 2008/2009 slump. As always, I caution against reading too much into one quarter’s numbers, particularly in those cases where the number of sales is small. Next week I shall publish a report for the first nine months of the year, which will provide a fuller picture of the market.
A good sign for the housing market is that the economy continues to improve with unemployment dropping below 6% for the first time since 2008, although the underemployment rate is still high at 11.8% and hourly earnings increased only 2% year over year. The latter numbers suggest that the Federal Reserve will not be rushing to raise interest rates, which is good news for mortgage rates. (more…)
Home Sales picking up in September
In addition to longer-term trends I try also to comment on current market conditions.
Whereas new sales (as in accepted offers rather than closed transactions) increased 8% in Essex County in August compared with a year ago, in Marblehead they dropped slightly. The numbers in August are small but we saw 17 new sales against 22 a year ago.
I believe that September’s new sales will give a lead as to how strong the market will be this winter. In Essex County new sales are already some 73% of last year’s total, so look likely to show an increase year on year. In Marblehead, new sales have reached 21, which compares with 18 in the whole of September 2014.
So far, so good.
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
So how does the Housing Market look after Labor Day?
After a summer which saw the highest number of sales of SFHs in Marblehead since 2004, where does the market stand after Labor Day?
Here are a few thoughts and, of course, numbers: (more…)
Housing Inventory heading into Fall: a surprise
I started to write this article intending to talk about the increase in supply we have seen in recent weeks and how the housing market was getting back into equilibrium between buyers and sellers, a situation achieved when supply reached 6 months. But a funny thing happened as I worked through the numbers. Take a look at this table: (more…)
Do Property Tax Rates matter to Buyers?
After posting my article Marblehead leads the way in Million Dollar sales in Essex County in which I speculated that different property tax rates may be one reason for the changes in sales in different towns, I checked my blog records and discovered that my posts on tax rates are among the most widely viewed. (more…)
Ten Most Popular Posts
Which posts – and which subjects – interest you the most?
Here are the Ten most viewed posts over the last year.
The best time to buy or sell a home in Massachusetts
Property Tax Rates for 2013 in Marblehead and the North Shore
Marblehead sale over $4 million – guess where?
Oceanfront homes package in Marblehead and Cayman Islands
How much will home prices increase in the next decade?
Marblehead’s Property Tax Rate for 2014
Marblehead Oceanfront Open House Sunday
Marblehead: median list price $995,000; median sale price $532,000
2014 proposed North Shore property tax rates
Marblehead Third Quarter housing market review (more…)
London Home Prices Finally Start to Slow
I saw this headline go across my screen on Bloomberg and my first reaction was to assume that prices were actually going down.
Not so. (more…)
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