Generally, the volume of real estate business went down in 2024, compared to 2023. Here at 4 Buyers Real Estate, we felt the shift. However, we kept doing what we do and had the second best economic year, ever, for the company. The secret to our success is not a secret: We do our best
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” In home buying, that is true. There are many sources of data out for house hunters. Some are not meant to manipulate you. Some are. Some will confuse and overwhelm you. When you need help sorting the information overload, ask your agent. Here is an example of perfectly
Somewhere around May or June, I started mentioning to my agents that we might experience an election slump. We’ve had one every Presidential election year, except 2020. Would the pattern begin again in 2024? If there is an election slump, it’ll be happening any minute. Hint to buyers: any reduction in demand is a good
This seems to be the number-one question. It is a terrible question based on terrible assumptions: How much over asking price should I offer, on average? Don’t assume that asking prices are based on Fair Market Value. In reality, asking prices are a made-up number intended to get the highest number of offers, so that
It is not typical for our agents to be out showing properties all day during January. But this year, most of them are! In the normal seasonal flow of New England real estate, the period between Thanksgiving and the middle of February is the slowest time of year. The "January thaw" this year bodes well
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
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
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
A few times a year, the Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors ® prepares an economic review for Realtors ®. The report was aired on Zoom August 2nd. He does a really good job, especially because there are so many of us, and we have such a variety of backgrounds. He is accessible,
The Boston Globe real estate reporters throw data at their readers without enough explanation. That’s where I come in. Larry Edelman packed a lot into his 2023 article as an example, “Where Mass. home prices are hot – and not.” Here is the translation for buyers in Spring 2023. These data sets are year over