February 27, 2008
Is there Light on the Housing Horizon?
In case you missed it (and it’s doubtful that you did), the news is bad.
According to a report in yesterday’s Boston Globe, sales of single-family homes in Massachusetts in January 2008 plummeted 28.3 percent when compared to January 2007. The median price for a single-family home also dropped 4.4 percent. Meanwhile, Massachusetts condo sales fell 36.2 percent on a year-to-year basis. (Prices for condos dropped 1.5 percent.) The data comes from the Warren Group, a Boston company that tracks New England real estate.
Here’s something, though, that has me stumped. I have a friend who is a realtor (not in Brookline or Brighton but in downtown Boston). She tells me that her office is DESPERATE for listings! That’s right, they’ve got plenty of buyers, but not so many people looking to sell. (And who would want to sell with a constant barrage of bad news in this market?) Of course, all real estate is local. It’s different in other neighborhoods of the city. I counted well over 900 homes on the market in Dorchester this month. That’s a lot. Brookline and Brighton, for whatever reasons, seem to have many fewer houses and condos on the market than what I can recall of last year this time. (There must be a realtor out there who can give me some data on this.)
Anyway, though Brookline and Brighton aren’t hurting like Dorchester, they’re probably not doing quite as well as downtown Boston either. All in all, though I think Brookline and Brighton are likely to fare better than many other areas for a couple of reasons. For one thing, foreclosed homes and the whole subprime loan mess is less of a factor here than it might be in other neighborhoods. And secondly, because of the area’s location, there is a constant supply of professionals and students willing to rent a house that might otherwise go on the market, only to languish there for months on end. So basically, homeowners in these neighborhoods have options other than rushing to sell in a down market. That being said, there are properties out there that aren’t moving quickly. Here are a few new price reductions this week:
7 Regent Circle, Apt. 3, reduced from $449,900 to $439K. At 940 square feet, it’s not a lot of space for the price.
2400 Beacon Street, Apt. 405, reduced from $679K to $669K. The developers are probably trying to move these condos in a slow market, so there may be even more negotiating room.
163-165 Chestnut Hill Ave, Apt. 304, reduced from $449,900 to $444,900. My guess is that luxury condos in this price range are a harder sell in Brighton since it’s more or less the same price of a condo of the same square footage in Brookline.
16 Peaceable Street, Apt. 4, reduced from $297K to $295K. (Don’t you just hate these tiny incremental price reductions? Personally, if I’m having doubts, $2,000 isn’t going to sway me.)
Image: freedigitalphotos.net
