Housing is all about the schools. This created the situation that springtime house hunters face in most areas around Boston. A little perspective: In the book The Two Income Trap, one of the ongoing tropes is that the pressure to send one’s children to “good” schools underlies the competition for houses in well-regarded schools systems.
Dear Boston Globe, It is February 28, 2017. Too early for your annual “scare the buyers” article. Please wait until spring. But, since you chose to publish now. I will translate for my clients. Definitions: Sales volume: the number of housing units sold in a given period. Median sales price: The middle price from a
Q: How does monetary control policy in China affect buyers in Boston? A: Strict control of cash leaving China has slowed or stopped the flow of money used for down payments by Chinese people buying international properties. This is good news for our buyers. Source Since the Great Recession in America (2008), one of the
General: most of the number-crunching services are predicting that housing prices will be stable. This means they will increase, but at a slower rate than we have been seeing over the past three years. Deregulation will loosen mortgage requirements. This is a positive for first-time buyers who are on the brink of purchasing. Some will
Even though it isn't winter yet, housing prices begin to drop this time of year. Winter is a bargain-hunter's paradise, but it is also house-hunting hell. Between Thanksgiving and Martin Luther King Day (or Super Bowl Sunday when the Pats are in the playoffs), demand dries up, but so does inventory. The drain on demand
Q: What happened in Boston on Tuesday night will affect the region’s housing. A: Question 5 in Boston passed! Q: What’s that? A: It was a ballot measure that increased property tax on Boston residents by 1 percent. This money will be dedicated to affordable housing, recreation, and historic preservation projects. The expectation is that
Do you learn better by doing a project than by sitting at a desk and reading? Do you think your children are like you in that regard? If so, you may want to move to Somerville--for the schools. Say what? Somerville Schools just got the motherlode of good luck in the school department. Powderhouse Studios
No sooner do I publish how well our clients did in a hard seller’s market, than The Boston Globe publishes a second edition of their annual “scare the buyers” article. What they say is all true. But, who does it serve to say it the way they do? Not buyers, that’s for sure. Before you
How well do exclusive buyer’s agents do, in the face of a tough seller’s market? Here are results for the hardest seller’s market we have faced, ever! Our report card for the first half of 2016: Total amount under original asking negotiated by -$213,500 Total amount negotiated after inspections: -$19,000 Total paid over asking price
Not every year is the same, but there’s a pattern. By July, the number of new listings has declined, but demand also goes down. Then, in September – normally -- some more properties come up for sale because sellers try to sell in the fall, before the “dead” winter season. The spring market is motivated