May 8, 2008
Past Sales, Price Reductions in Brookline and Brighton
The toughest part about buying a house is sifting through lists of homes with astronomical asking prices. For example, the average listing price in Brookline is a discouraging $683K. That’s way out of my price range!
But buyers take heart; the average listing price differs from the average sale price. In the past three months in Brookline, the average sale price is $447,500– significantly lower than the asking price. In Brighton, the average listing price over the last three months is about $329K, but the average sale prices is significantly less — $270K. (Stats courtesy of Redfin.)
What does this mean? Maybe lower-priced homes are selling, while the million-dollar luxury homes aren’t. Or maybe it means sellers are accepting lower offers. If it’s the latter scenario, it’s good news for buyers who, like me, are confused by the disconnect between what’s on the market and all the newspaper headlines about declining housing prices.
Here’s some more good news for buyers waiting for housing prices to come down:
2021 Commonwealth Avenue, #1, Brighton
Reduced from $649K to $624K
BEDS:2/BATHS:2.5
SQ.FT: 1667
374 Chestnut Hill Ave, #54, Brighton
Reduced from $279K to $277K.
BEDS:2/BATHS:1
SQ.FT: 852
99 Pond Avenue, #320, Brookline
Reduced from $559,9K to $549,9K.
BEDS:2/BATHS:2
SQ.FT: 1300
John A Keith said:
Tut, tut. Don’t leave your readers hanging - answer the question! Some research on what’s listed vs. what’s closing would give you the data you require.
The Globe ran a prominent article recently saying that Beacon Hill average sales price had dropped something like 25% in one year. While true, by the math, it didn’t even mention the reason. There were drastically fewer sales (and listings) in the upper range. The rich just haven’t been listing their properties, which skewed the results. A LOT.
May 7, 2008 10:19 AM
Pam said:
Hi John!
Good point… It may very well be the same phenomenon happening in Brookline. Mostly, though, I think it’s just that a lot more people are in the market for condos rather than houses in Brookline, (and Brighton, too, for that matter), which means the sales prices which include more condos come in far below the average listing prices, which would include more houses. That’s a guess, though. I would have to do a detailed statistical analysis (and unfortunately, I don’t have access to all those stats) to tell me the full picture.
May 7, 2008 11:09 AM
John K said:
?
Is it my imagination, or did the most recent post disappear?
May 8, 2008 9:39 PM
pamela.reynolds said:
My most recent post is the above post, although I’ll be posting again today. Perhaps another Boston blogger removed one of their posts?????
May 9, 2008 2:32 AM