Winter is a bargain-hunters paradise, but it 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 is usually higher than the drain on supply. Sellers who can wait until the spring frequently
When you think about Thanksgiving Day, does an image come to mind as your mental picture of Thanksgiving? Does that image take place in a dining room? Is it a dining room you currently own or rent, or one owned or rented by someone you know? Or does Thanksgiving remind you more of outdoor activity
As a house hunter, you are under no obligation to tell your lender that you are pregnant or plan to be pregnant. Pregnancy is not a legal reason for a lender to deny you a mortgage, unless your income changes in a way that makes you no longer qualified for the mortgage. I answered this
The news of the day regarding real estate in the Boston area is that FEMA has published new flood maps. These maps determine areas for mandatory flood insurance. Flood insurance cost brings up a problem that house hunters commonly see in regard to the municipal tax cost. When a house hunter looks at a listing
The single family and condo sales market have high demand, unless there is something unusual about the property that makes it unappealing. In addition, properties that are overpriced have problems selling, because they become “stale” on the market very quickly. (These are places where deals can be had.) Multifamily houses are even harder to buy,
There is a lot of real estate data coming out now. Now that the spring house-hunting season is passed us, the data on those closed sales are available. The first set of data is courtesy of the National Association of Realtors. Notice that, across the board, their data shows whopping double-digit increases this year. This
On Google+, Rona answered this question: Several years ago, our tank water heater failed rather spectacularly, gushing water all over the basement floor. This morning at 6, I put the skills from that episode to work as, half-awake, I turned off the water and the pilot light for our neighbors' tank water heater, which at
Rona reporting: I am pleased to share this Somerville Patch article about the real estate statistics for the first half of 2013. Chris Orchard summarizes the facts and figures for you. Here is a summary of his summary: Sales volume is down. Sales prices are up. This is true of both single family houses and
The National Association of Realtors ® has the capacity to crunch numbers in ways I can never do from my little business here in Somerville. Today, on FaceBook, they sent me this statistic: “About 1-in-5 homeowners are single females, making them the second largest home buying demographic after married couples.” plus ???? Throughout
For the past year and a half or so, my buyers have been plagued by competition by investor-buyers. They seemed to flood the demand-side of the market around the time that we hit bottom. Many seemed to have deep pockets; they were paying cash and had cash for renovation. Today, I ran across this article.