This year has already seen incredible changes in real estate for the greater Boston area, including skyrocketing prices. As the market steps into the slower fall and winter seasons, one expert says things are cooling off – but don’t expect this to translate into lower prices. When we spoke to Denise Garzone for the first time in April, the real estate market had spiked with fever, with queues of buyers, dozens of offers for homes at prices well above asking prices, and buyers foregoing inspections. Now she says things have changed again. “I think the frenzy of the spring and early summer market has certainly eased,” said Garzone. “Buyers were exhausted, just exhausted and frustrated, and they made a decision to get out of the market.” Make no mistake, it’s still a sellers’ market and prices are still up significantly. The latest numbers from The Warren Group, a Boston area real estate and financial data firm, show that single-family home prices in Massachusetts have increased 29.4% over the past two years. Garzone says sellers are no longer seeing the 15 to 20 offers that were common in many suburbs this spring. “We may see one to three in our marketplace,” she said. According to Garzone, the lower number of bids means that some homes that were once hundreds of thousands of dollars above the asking price now have a new normal price of $ 50,000 asking $ 100,000 too much – and that assumes the price for the house is correct. Even with very low inventory, buyers are more patient as the pandemic panic subsides. ”(If a home seems overpriced for buyers, they’ll be on the fence and wait on the weekend and see if it’s still available the following week “Garzone said. Garzone expects inventory to remain tight, which will keep prices high, so those waiting for a big price correction may be unlucky.” She said. “If it’s a good house with one good price, it will work. ”Another sign of a slight slowdown in the market is that the risky trend of buyers foregoing all inspections and contingencies just to win a bidding war has largely ended.
BOSTON –
This year has already seen incredible changes in real estate for the greater Boston area, including skyrocketing prices.
As the market steps into the slower fall and winter seasons, one expert says things are cooling off – but don’t expect that to translate into lower prices.
When we spoke to Denise Garzone for the first time in April, the real estate market had spiked with fever, with queues of buyers, dozens of offers for homes at prices well above asking prices, and buyers foregoing inspections. Now she says things have changed again.
“I think the frenzy of the spring and early summer market has certainly eased,” said Garzone. “Buyers were exhausted, just exhausted and frustrated, and they decided to get out of the market.”
Make no mistake, it’s still a seller’s market and prices have still gone up significantly.
The latest figures from The Warren Group, a real estate and financial data company in the Boston area, show that single-family home prices in Massachusetts have increased 29.4% over the past two years.
According to Garzone, sellers no longer see the 15 to 20 offers that were common in many suburbs in the spring.
“We might see one or three in our market,” she said.
According to Garzone, the lower number of offers means that some homes that were once hundreds of thousands of dollars above the asking price now have a new normal price of $ 50,000 to $ 100,000 above the asking price – and that assumes that the house is priced correctly .
Even with very low inventory levels, buyers are more patient as the pandemic panic subsides.
“(If a house seems too expensive to buyers, they’ll sit on the fence and wait the weekend and see if it’s still available the following week,” Garzone said.
Garzone expects inventory to remain low, which will keep prices high, so those waiting for a big price correction may be out of luck.
“I don’t see any major price adjustments this fall until the end of the year,” she said. “If it’s a good house and a good price, it will work.”
Another sign of the market cooling down slightly is that the risky trend of buyers foregoing all inspections and contingencies just to win a bidding war has largely ended.
