Market data and conditions

Are We Seeing a January Thaw in Real Estate?

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

By |2024-01-28T10:22:35-05:00January 31st, 2024|Categories: Market data and conditions|Tags: , , , , |

What’s Happening in the Greater Boston Market? Fall 2023

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

By |2023-10-18T07:26:08-04:00October 18th, 2023|Categories: Market data and conditions|Tags: , , , |

How high is that rental market?

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

Summer Real Estate Market Review: Local Edition

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

By |2023-08-17T11:02:41-04:00August 23rd, 2023|Categories: House Hunting, Market data and conditions|Tags: , , , , |

Decoding the Real Estate News, Spring 2023

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 recent article, “Where Mass. home prices are hot – and not.” Here is the translation for buyers in Spring 2023. These data sets are year over year – last

By |2023-04-24T08:13:57-04:00April 26th, 2023|Categories: Market data and conditions|Tags: , , , , , |

Housing shortage

I attend talks on the real estate economy as often as I can. When they are sponsored by the Realtors®, I translate them back to the needs of buyers, not owners. In a March 22 presentation, this slide stood out for me. Why is metro Boston in such a mess of a seller’s market? This

By |2023-04-17T10:00:13-04:00April 19th, 2023|Categories: Market data and conditions|

Why we do a comparative market study

Our clients are considerate people. They often say things like, “I don’t want you to spend a lot of time doing a market study, just tell me if you think the condo is worth what they are asking.” That's nice, but: We can’t give a professional opinion without doing the math! It is that simple.

Watching the market, as it changes

All eyes are on the real estate market, in an effort to guess what will happen when the snow stops falling and real estate spring market begins. The Boston Globe is no exception. Andrew Brinker published an article in mid-January, subtitled “For the first time since 2018, home prices here fell in December on a

By |2023-01-19T12:27:08-05:00January 25th, 2023|Categories: Market data and conditions|Tags: , , , |

January: the winter house hunters and the spring house hunters

If this January is any indication, the seasons are shifting in Boston area real estate. Usually between December 15 and January 15, no one is contacting us about buying a house. This year, prospective clients started calling and writing right after Christmas. Winter buyers: Some clients were looking to get on the road, heeding my

By |2023-01-15T12:39:14-05:00January 18th, 2023|Categories: Buying trends, House Hunting, Market data and conditions|Tags: , , , , , |