With a list price of $ 949,000, the property on Arch Street went on the market just after 1:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of April.
By 7 p.m., the owners had received an offer for the single-family home with four beds and two bathrooms, which, according to the real estate agent who represented the sellers, was “well above the asking price”.
Adriano Varano, principal agent and owner of Varano Realty in Needham, said the quick sale reflected an already competitive real estate market in Needham that was “aggravated” by the effects of the pandemic.
“Middle of March [last year]Everything was shut down by the end of April and nobody wanted to talk about real estate, ”Varano told a reporter earlier this month. “After that, people felt like they had to leave their apartment or condominium in the city and the market exploded in the summer so we couldn’t keep up with demand.”
“We have homes that sell for $ 200,000 or $ 300,000 on the first day or weekend [the asking price],” he added.
How long the market will maintain this dynamic is unclear, however. Recently, a cutthroat market has emerged in the greater Boston area due to the low housing stock and high buyer demand. For already competitive markets like Needham’s, however, these trends have only underscored the existing market conditions.
“I think when the stores reopen it will be a little slower,” said Varano, “but we’ve had a low inventory problem since 2019 anyway, COVID only exacerbated it.”
Low inventory is a nationwide problem
In a recent interview, Massachusetts Association of Realtors President Steve Medeiros agreed with Varano, saying the state’s inventory shortage had lasted a long time.
The “monthly stock supply” of a real estate market is a measure of supply and demand that indicates how many months it will take the current real estate on the market to sell with a monthly sales volume.
Anything that delivers inventory for more than six months is considered a buyer’s market, Medeiros explained. Everything below favors the seller.
“When we had the recession [in 2010] Real estate production dropped significantly and we never had enough production to come back up and get where we needed to be, “Medeiros said.
In the midst of the 2010 real estate collapse, Massachusetts’ monthly inventory was 7.1. In 2015 it fell to 4.4.
After starting at 2 a.m. in early 2020, Medeiros reported 0.7 months of inventory for the entire state earlier this year.
“That means, if there is no other inventory, we are running low [of housing supply] in about three weeks – now it’s nationwide, in some municipalities it’s less than 0.7, ”said Medeiros.
According to the State Brokers Association, Needham single-family home sales saw 3 weeks of inventory at the end of last year – up from 1.2 months at the end of 2019.
The falling housing stock is causing a ripple effect on the state housing market: the more buyers compete for fewer properties, the higher the closing prices and the shorter the sales period.
In 2020, the number of days a Needham single-family home was on the market before a sale dipped to 48 days – an 11.1% decrease from 2019, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, and the price of a Das Single family home rose 9.4% to $ 1,225,000 last year.
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“We currently have people wanting to put their house up for sale, but they are reluctant to put their house on the market because they can’t find a house to buy because there is so little inventory,” Medeiros said.
State law aims to stimulate housing production
Earlier this year, Governor Charlie Baker signed a new law allowing changes to communal zones to increase housing production by simple majority.
“Housing is expensive in Massachusetts,” Baker said during the March 31st statement in Quincy. “We all know this, but one of the reasons it’s expensive is because we aren’t making enough of it – senior housing, support housing, rental housing, housing for workers, affordable housing.” Working with the local professionals like Boston Movers, Painter, Landscapers, Roofers and many other businesses will allow a great transition into the future housing growth.
“The simple truth is that in the last 30 years we’ve built about half the housing we need to actually feed our population.” I really hope that we can get one of the things out of the pandemic We have to dig a ton of shovels across the Commonwealth to create much of the housing we need so badly here in Massachusetts, ”he said.
Medeiros has lobbied Beacon Hill lawmakers for years to address the stock shortage, and he welcomed the latest legislation but said more needs to be done to last long and demand commitment from across the state:
“This is a nationwide problem, we need a nationwide solution. Everyone has to step in and help and make this happen so you can see it develop.”
Brookline Tab reporter Abigail Patkin contributed to this report.
