Boston Condos for Sale and Apartments for Rent
Boston Condo Sales Stats (This May Surprise You)
It’s a hot seller’s market in much of the country, despite few sales, as homebuyer demand is outpacing supply nationally.
Even though sales are down by double digits, limited new listings are making it feel like a seller’s market in parts of the country, according to a new Redfin report.
The report found even though elevated mortgage rates continue to dampen demand, low inventory has homes selling fast in parts of the country.
New listings continue to be in short supply.
During the four weeks ended April 2, new listings fell 21.8% from last year — one of the biggest drops since the start of the pandemic, marking an “unseasonal early-spring decline in the total number of homes for sale,” according to the report.
And with many homeowners choosing to stay put because they don’t want to give up their low mortgage rate, buyers are acting fast on homes as they hit the market. That quick action has nearly half of all homes on the market going under contract within two weeks, up about 25% from January.
“It would take 2.8 months for today’s supply of for-sale homes to sell at homebuyers’ current consumption rate, the shortest time since September,” the report said.
Despite quickened sales, pending home sales are still down, falling 19% year over year.
Redfin deputy chief economist Taylor Marr says elevated mortgage rates are perhaps an even bigger deterrent for would-be sellers than for would-be buyers.
“Giving up a 3% mortgage rate for one in the 6% range is a tough pill to swallow,” said Marr. “Today’s serious homebuyers have grown accustomed to the idea of a 5% or 6% rate and have adjusted their budgets accordingly. The lack of homes hitting the market explains why the market is moving fast even though sales are still down. The lack of new listings is also one reason why sales are down: Buyers can’t buy if sellers don’t want to sell.”
Thirty-year mortgage rates fell to 6.28% for the week ending April 6, the fourth week in a row of declines. The daily average was 6.18% on April 6.
Mortgage applications declined 4% during the week ended March 31, and purchase applications rose 8% from the prior month but were down 35% from a year earlier.
The lower rate brought the average monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home to $2,508, down slightly from March’s peak, but up 15% from a year ago.
There’s no doubt homebuyer demand is on the rise. During the week ended April 6, Redfin found Google searches for “homes for sale” were up 44% from their December low but down 20% from last year.
In the four weeks ended April 2, active listings rose 12.3% from last year, marking the smallest increase in five months. Meanwhile, new listings fell 21.8% from last year.
The median asking price of a home rose 0.9% from 2022 to $391,851. Meanwhile, the median sale price fell for the seventh week in a row by 2.1% to $361,796.
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U.S. new-home sales jumped unexpectedly in May despite rising mortgage rates, while the median sales price declined.
The pace of new single-family home sales rose 10.7% from April’s upwardly revised number to a seasonally adjusted, annual rate of 696,000, while the median sales price fell to $449,000 from April’s revised median house price of $454,700. Economists had been expecting new-home sales would fall to a rate of 588,000, according to Reuters. Development reported. Economists had been expecting new-home sales would fall to a rate of 588,000, according to Reuters.
On a year-over-year basis, the pace of new-home sales in May was down 5.9%.
“As pricing begins to show signs of softening and builder inventory increases, there is potential for sales to remain consistent at this level or possibly increase slowly through the summer — because the market remains under-built, and fewer households are putting their existing homes on the market,” RCLCO Real Estate Consulting principal Kelly Mangold said. “This decline in for-sale mobility may bode well for the rise of the build-for-rent sector, as an increasing number of households seeking a for-sale home may instead choose to rent a single-family home or townhome while they wait for market conditions to become more favorable.”
The seasonally adjusted estimate of new homes for sale at the end of May was 444,000, representing a supply of 7.7 months at the current sales rate. In April, there were 437,000 homes for sale, representing an 8.3-month supply.
By region, the number of new-construction homes sold was mixed, with month-over-month increases of 39.3% and 12.8% in the West and South, respectively, and decreases of 51.1% and 18.3% in the Northeast and Midwest, respectively.
First American Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi cautioned not to read too much into the surprise jump in sales.
“The monthly increase in new-home sales beat consensus expectations, but new-home sales data is volatile and one month does not make a trend,” she said in a press release. “While the nation continues to face a housing shortage, new-home sales may slow as worsening affordability and higher construction costs take a toll on the new-home market.”
Updated: Boston Real Estate Blog 2022
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Boston Condo Sales Stats (This May Surprise You)
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I must say, this recent article from the Greater Boston Association of Realtors took me by surprise:
Boston-area home sales rose for the sixth month in a row in February as the median selling prices for both homes and condominiums hit new highs — a sign an extremely active market is likely for spring.
“Buyer enthusiasm has been through the roof over the first two months of the year, with many eager to get a head start on the traditional spring selling season,” Greater Boston Association of Realtors President Dino Confalone said in a press release. “There’s a lot of pent-up demand from buyers who’ve been house-hunting for months, if not years, and their search has become a year-long effort.”
February saw the fourth-highest sales total for the month, with the sale of 598 single-family homes, an 8.3% increase from 552 homes sold in February 2020, according to GBAR data released this week. While sales were high in February, there was still a 32.3% drop from the record 883 homes sold in January.
Condo sales were robust, too, with the second most-active February on record, with 635 condos sold, a 5.1% increase from the 604 units sold in February 2020. Condo sales did decline 17.1% from a record high of 766 units sold in January, however.
Record-breaking prices accompanied the robust sales activity for condos and single-family homes in February.
The median sales price for single-family homes reached a February high at $648,750, a 5.7% increase from $614,000 a year earlier, while the median sales price for condos rose 3.1% year over year to an all-time high for the month at $597,000.
Boston Condo for Sale Inventory
Inventory continues to be a factor as the number of buyers continued to outpace inventory, giving sellers the upper hand with top-dollar asking prices.
“On top of that, many buyers find themselves having to compete to outbid one another, and that’s helping to drive up prices further,” Confalone said in the release. “Right now, buyer demand is strongest in the suburban single-family home market, especially in communities outside of Rte. 128, and that’s where we’ve seen home values rise most sharply over the past year.”
The report found the inventory shortage was most pronounced with single-family home listings, which fell 42.8% from 1,701 in February 2020 to 974. New listings were down 24.5% from 1,297 in February 2020 to 979.
Active condominium listings rose 17.4% year over year to 1,994 from 1,968, while new condo listings increased 7.4% to 1,188, compared to 1,106 in February 2020.
Boston Real Estate and the Bottom Line
The GBAR report also found pending sales rose in February for the ninth consecutive month. Single-family homes placed under agreement were up 3.1% from February 2020 and 38.4% from January. Pending condominium sales climbed 24.9% year over year and 29% month over month
Filed Under: Good News for downtown Boston real estate sellers
