Above the pay-wall spot in the online Boston Globe, reporter Andrew Bricker summarizes the local market. In short, the number of sales is down. Demand in the month of September was much lower than last September. The reason, says experts, is high interest rates. For us at 4 Buyers Real Estate, the news of lowering
According to Andrew Yun, the economic advisor for the National Association of Realtors, there has been a shift in buying patterns in recent years. The largest number of property buyers are Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964). This is not typical. What is more “normal” would be that young adults are the largest group of buyers. This
This summer, I have been out front on efforts that aid affordable housing in metro Boston. I was approached to work on an op-ed with colleague Brian Sullivan that was published at the end of August in the Boston Business Journal. It was about a proposed transfer fee in Massachusetts. A quick timeline on affordable housing: The
It is not clear to me whether sellers are getting more money for their old houses with wall insulation. I doubt that they are. Buyers who value sustainability lean towards new construction, which will be much better than even the best retrofit of an old house. But, insulation is not that expensive because of MassSave programs that
When should you start to plan buying a house? The answer is that you can plan long ahead, and it can only help you when the right time comes. I coach my clients to buy a home that will serve them — given their best guesses about the future – for the next seven to
In August, I went to the wedding of an exclusive buyer’s broker from Long Island, NY. A good time was had by all. There are some things that made this wedding different from the typical wedding that I would attend. Well, actually, the wedding looked like most weddings. People all dressed up, some vows, some
Affordable housing is not just a good idea. It is essential to a functioning economy. Eastern Massachusetts’s economy runs on hospitals, colleges, and businesses. They employ tech workers, building construction and maintenance workers, and many young professional workers. There is a chronic problem with recruiting nurses and entry level professionals because of the cost of
This summer, there were two community listening sessions in Somerville. The goal was to gather opinions about the city’s potential rent stabilization legislation. How could it be done? How could it be done fairly? How would it affect landlords, tenants, and business interests? There will be another session on September 12. How much rent? Let’s
The local real estate market looks a different from the national market snapshot, which I summarized two weeks ago. Eastern Massachusetts has an acute housing shortage, and that is allowing a seller’s market to remain despite the high interest rates that are reducing a buyer’s spending power. The bottom line is that prices are still
Ever since the Barbie movie came out, I have been tempted to rerun a post from Valentine’s Day, 2019. Then, a Facebook post on The Arlington list just knocked me over the edge. So, rerun it is! Posted February 13, 2019: Happy Valentine’s Day, Ken and Barbie. I know you wanted your dream home, but