Massachusetts 2016 housing market By The Numbers
The median price of a Single Family Home (SFH) in Massachusetts in 2016 rose 3% to a new high, finally passing the prior 2005 peak. The median price of a condo rose 3.5% to a new high. Sales of SFHS were a record while condo sales remain 13% below 2005 levels. The impact of Boston on MA condo prices is explored in How much does Boston impact Massachusetts condo prices?. (more…)
Mid-Year housing inventory down sharply
Preliminary data (a lot of sales scheduled to close by 6/30 have not been entered into MLS as yet) suggest that sales were up 14-20% in Essex County and Massachusetts in the first half of the year, and median price up 3-4%. The following table shows current inventory for local towns, Essex County and Massachusetts as a whole. The highlighted last column shows the change from a year ago. There are some huge changes, all showing lower inventory.
If you are considering selling your home please contact me on 617.834.8205 or Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com for a free market analysis and explanation of the outstanding marketing program I offer.
Read Which broker should I choose to sell my house?
If you are looking to buy, I will contact you immediately when a house that meets your needs is available. In this market you need to have somebody looking after your interests.
Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
@OliverReports
When is the best time to buy or sell a home in Massachusetts?
We probably all “know” that the best time to sell a home is the spring or early summer, right? But is there evidence to back up that belief? This article provides the answer to the question: when is the best time to buy or sell a home in Massachusetts?
I looked at the median price of a Single Family Home (SFH) by quarter over the last 16 years. (Note that in all my reports, while sales numbers include all recorded MLS sales, median prices exclude distressed sales – foreclosures and short sales).
The highest price recorded each year is highlighted. This shows that in 14 of the 16 years the highest median price was recorded in Q3 – July to September. In the other two years the highest price was achieved in Q2, but in none of the years did Q1 or Q4 see the highest price.
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
The next table shows the same data but with the lowest quarterly price highlighted. Here we see that in 12 of the 16 years the lowest median price was seen in Q1 and in the other 4 years it occurred in Q4, but never in Q2 or Q3.
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
Let me summarize these in a table:
Conclusion
While the argument has always been made that the spring or summer is the best time to sell a house because that is when there are more buyers looking (hence, higher sales take place), the evidence here adds the additional information that the best prices are also achieved in the summer months.
Thus, as a seller one does indeed want to be ready to go to the market when the thermometer rises. Conversely, the best time to buy is :
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
Sounds a lot like today.
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 Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com.
Read How should I choose the broker to sell my house?
Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty. 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
Massachusetts 2015 Condo Market Review
This Massachusetts 2015 Condo Market review shows that sales in 2015 were steady, while prices overall rose 3%. But – and it’s a big but – the inclusion of Boston in numbers for all 353 cities and towns in the State distort the result. In this report I break out Boston and show how the rest of the State fared in 2015.
Sales
Condo sales in Massachusetts have been steady for the last three years, but are still sharply down from the 2005 peak.
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
Median Price
It may appear surprising, at first blush, that the median price of a condo in Massachusetts should show a 20% increase over the 2005 level. There is a one word explanation: Boston.
The first chart shows just the overall condo market, while the second breaks out Boston and shows Massachusetts ex Boston. Removing Boston from the calculation reduces the increase since 2005 to 10%, while the median price in Boston has increased more than 50% in the same period.
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
Summary
The inclusion of Boston condos – the main market in the city – distorts the numbers for the State overall. Nevertheless, it is encouraging that the median condo price, excluding Boston, still reached a new paek level in 2015.
The Massachusetts economy remains strong – GE’s decision to relocate to Boston will only help – and mortgage rates are once again close to all-time lows.
Barring geopolitical disasters, the outlook for 2016 is for a gently improving market in Massachusetts.
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 Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com.
Read Which broker should I hire to sell my home?
Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty. 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
Massachusetts 2015 Housing Market Review
The Single Family (SFH) market in Massachusetts in 2015 saw a 10% increase in sales and a 3% increase in the median price, returning the latter to within 1% of the 2004 peak.
Sales
The 10% increase in 2015, all of which came in the second half of the year, took sales just above the prior peak in 2004.
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
Median Price
The median price increased a modest 3%, taking it to within 1% of the 2005 peak.
As is quite normal, the highest prices were achieved in Q2 and Q3.
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
Summary
While it is hard to draw meaningful conclusions from numbers covering 353 cities and towns, the overall picture is of a market that has largely returned to normal.
The Massachusetts economy remains strong – GE’s decision to relocate to Boston will only help – and mortgage rates are once again close to all-time lows.
Barring geopolitical disasters, the outlook for 2016 is for a gently improving market in Massachusetts.
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 Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com.
Read Which broker should I hire to sell my home?
Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty. 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
What matters more – the number of sales or the price?
I read a report recently listing the 25 “hottest” real estate markets in Massachusetts, ranked by the percentage increase in sales. This raises the question: what matters more – the number of sales or the price?
One argument is that a big increase in home sales is a strong indicator that it is “becoming a sought-after location for homeowners”—in other words, a “hot” market.
So let’s look at 2015 and compare the hottest 25 with the State overall (note these numbers include SFHs, condos and multi-families, and are the median numbers):
There is always a wide range of price and sales increases or decreases, but I note that only 1 of the 25 hottest towns had an increase in double figures, while 5 recorded decreases in the median price.
Overall, the 25 hottest towns did somewhat better than the State, which is good news – especially for the real estate agents selling those extra properties.
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 Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com.
Read Which broker should I choose to sell my home?
Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty. 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
Are Home Sales really booming?
I read a report recently saying that sales of Single Family Homes (SFHs) in Essex County in July jumped sharply compared with a year ago, although prices showed only modest gains.
I am always wary of one-month numbers – which is why I do not usually report them – so I have taken a look at sales for July (and August), the 4 months, May to August, which are the peak sales months of the year, and the year to date.
Here are the results for Essex County and for Massachusetts as a whole. While there was a spike in July, YTD sales in both Essex County and Massachusetts are up 7%. (more…)
Essex County Mid-Year Housing Review
In the first half of 2015 the median price of a Single Family Home (SFH) increased slightly, while sales were basically flat, despite the low inventory. Distressed sales – foreclosures and short sales – were steady year on year, but are way down from the levels of 2010-2012.
Median Prices
The median price for the first half of 2015 was $385,000, up from $380,000 in 2014, and close to the 2005 peak of $390,000..
Source: MLS, Oliver Reports
MA condo supply: is it really only 1.8 months?
The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book report in July contained the following statement: “Massachusetts currently has only 1.8 months’ supply of condominiums available, compared with 6 to 7 months’ supply in a balanced market.”
Really? Wow. As I often point out, statistics are extremely useful if you know the context and can put the numbers into perspective. The above comment, however, does not explain the period being measured. As the months of supply figure is calculated by dividing the number of units currently for sale by sales in a given period, it is necessary to know what the given period is. (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…)
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
Will baby boomers kill the housing market?
Will a flood of baby boomers cashing out their home equity be too much for the housing market to bear? That is the question I was asked recently.
One of the difficulties in trying to make personal decisions, like whether to buy a house today in the town of your choice, based on long-term, national forecasts (for example, boomers cashing in their housing chips) is the risk of missing out on a lot of known positives – i.e., home ownership – in fear of unknown possible negatives.
But let’s look at some of those big questions. See also 4 reasons home prices will keep going up . (more…)
Buy or rent? It’s NOT just a financial decision
OK, be warned, I am about to get on my soapbox.
Below I post a link to a recent Boston Herald article quoting a Zillow study comparing the costs of buying vs renting in different cities in the US and in different neighborhoods around Boston and Cambridge.
It’s not that I do no think article like this have some value. They do, encouraging people to think about how long they will stay in a house before making a major financial decision.
No, my problem with articles such as this is that they focus only on the financial aspect of buying a home. (more…)
Here we go again: bubble, bubble, toil and trouble
I know it’s really: Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble. (Macbeth).
When I read articles like Is Massachusetts headed toward another housing bubble?, I am reminded of the saying that economists have forecast 10 of the last 3 recessions. (more…)
New Windshield Wiper Law does not apply to Hayrides
Effective this coming Tuesday, April 7, a new Law in Massachusetts requires drivers to turn on headlights whenever they need to use their windshield wipers.
The new Law does not apply to vehicles transporting people on a hayride. Phew. (more…)
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