Boston Condos for Sale and Apartments for Rent
Boston MA Real Estate Survey
This looks pretty normal:
In an era where 50% or more of the homes for sale receive multiple offers, yet half or more of the sellers don’t ask the buyers to improve their offer – they just grab one instead? Money is being left on the table coast-to-coast:
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Read the full survey here:
From their last page:
Speaking of gifts from home buyers, we asked our sellers if buyers used any unusual tactics to try to win a bidding war, and the results were shocking. When flattery and (possibly) bribery didn’t work, some buyers turned to more nefarious tactics.
Among the troubling experiences sellers reported, the highlights include:
- An offer of two fully paid, all-inclusive tickets to a resort in Hawaii, presented over dinner
- Offering a $10,000 signing bonuses if the offer was accepted by midnight
- Buyers offering to buy toys and gifts for the seller’s children
- Three weeks at a time share in the Bahamas
- A buyer lying to the seller and saying they knew the seller’s grandmother
- A buyer texting a seller each morning to ask if they had received any better offers
- Buyers promising one price to sellers but writing their offers at a significantly lower price
- Telling the seller a home was on ancestral lands
- Heartfelt personal letters in hopes of tugging on a seller’s heart strings
- An offer to purchase the home with Bitcoin
- Attempted to give the seller exotic animals and a car to accept their offer
Just some of the tactics sellers reported buyers using to have their offer chosen include:
- A buyer lying to the seller and saying they knew the seller’s grandmother
- A buyer texting a seller each morning to ask if they had received any better offers
- Buyers promising one price to sellers but writing their offers at a significantly lower price
- Telling the seller a home was on ancestral lands.
Ford Realty Inc., Beacon Hill Office Location
Boston Real Estate
Boston Realtor magazine came out with their latest survey:
Boston Real Estate
The three main points in Realtor Magazine was:
Boston Condo Sellers, Builders May Ease Inventory Crunch
Inventory remains constrained as buyer demand surges. Potential sellers who are hesitant to list their home during a pandemic may not be aware of the housing market’s strength, said Danielle Hale, chief economist for realtor.com®. Sellers are often buyers, too, and they may not want to face the challenge of finding a home amid low inventory. These realities have limited the number of homes on the market during the pandemic, panelists said.
Why can’t builders construct more housing to meet demand? Labor shortages and escalating prices for building materials have held many builders back, with 80% saying they had to raise their new-home prices last month due to higher expenses, according to Zonda research. Further, most new-home construction in recent years has occurred near expensive urban cores.
Now that more buyers want to live farther from the city, builders are snatching up land in far suburbs and exurbs, said John Burns, CEO of John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Builder sentiment indexes are running at record highs, Burns said. “Builders have never been more optimistic, so we’ll see more construction—but it’s still going to take a while.”
Boston Suburbs Grow, But Downtown Boston Isn’t Dead
While the suburbs are in a growth phase, not all buyers are giving up on city living. “The popularity of the suburbs is real, but [the housing market] is not reflecting a full-fledged urban flight either,” Hale said. “Real estate is booming everywhere. The suburbs have bounced back relatively quicker than the urban areas nationwide.”
The suburbs were growing before the pandemic as millennials started migrating away from cities to form households. That trend has only accelerated, Wolf said. “The work-from-home environment has really fueled the ability for more people to migrate,” she said. “Home has become a focal point” as people hunker down during the pandemic.
Demand from investors also is surging, panelists said. Build-for-rent subdivisions are popping up as investors see a growing appetite from renters for single-family homes. Investor groups also are crowdsourcing funds to buy properties together, and home flippers are reemerging to turn around fixer-uppers for a quick profit, Burns said.
Assistance Programs Boost Affordability In Downtown Boston
Low mortgage rates can help buyers offset higher home prices, but not when prices are soaring into double-digit annual increases like they are now. First-time buyers are particularly in danger of being priced out of the market. “Affordability is going to be a key challenge in 2021 for first-time buyers,” Hale said.
Wolf added that education on down payment assistance programs will help would-be buyers find a purchase path amid higher prices. One positive sign: 60% of millennials are saving more money this year than last year despite the economic downturn, according to Zonda research. Millennials also say part of their increased savings will go toward a down payment.
