Real Estate Market Update – July 2018

The market is hot right now in Boston, Brookline and Brighton. Will it stay that way? I’ve been helping clients make great real estate decisions for over 15 years. Here’s my thoughts on the Boston real estate market right now:

 

Hi, everybody. It’s Ruth. I want to give a quick market update. It is the end of July 2018, and we have had really a very robust and unusually busy market this summer. July is quiet, and August, are usually quite slow in Boston in real estate. So what is attributing to this market? I think I’ve spoken to this, about this before.

Some people are saying, “Well, the weather was really terrible through mid-April; therefore, buyers were not out, and sellers were not coming on the market until late April, early May.” More likely culprit was all the market jitters we had in the beginning of the year, plus the interest rate hikes that started, and are going to continue through the rest of the year. Everybody kind of took a pause to see what’s going on with their finances.

We’re also seeing this trend throughout the country. I’ve spoken to agents all around the country, where they do have a seasonal market, like we do here in Boston. And they are saying July is unusually busy after a very slow first quarter 2018. National statistics are out. May home sales have declined nationwide. We are looking at an inventory shortage, a story throughout this country. The people who are suffering the most are the first time home buyers, the young families, the entry-level buyers. For us here in Boston metro, we’re looking in the smaller condo, the two-bedroom condo market, and this is a problem nationwide with smaller homes.

I did some research for a client of mine and we looked at the numbers. In the past four years, four years, the average prices of condominiums in Brighton have gone up 55%, 55%. The past four years, the average price of condominium Brookline have gone up 40%. Wow, what an investment in the past few years to own a condominium in Brookline, Brighton, and really, in most of greater Boston.

But if the average price has gone up by 55%, does that mean your condo is worth 55% more? Well, not necessarily and probably not. That average price is really being pulled up by a lot of the, kind of the luxury, and the new construction, and the larger units being built this past couple of years in Brighton, and now are being sold. They are pulling this number up. Your home is not necessarily worth 55% more than it was just four years ago. But it is worth a lot more. It has been a very dynamic and generous market to home sellers in almost all of Boston’s neighborhoods, Brookline, as well as Newton.

If you have any questions about the real estate market, don’t hesitate to contact me. Text, write me, call me. I love hearing from you. Have a fantastic rest of the summer.

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