Today’s scheduled Open Houses
w :
Marblehead Open Houses
Swampscott Open Houses
Salem Open Houses
Beverly Open Houses
Lynn Open Houses
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside
Sotheby’s International Realty
www.andrewJoliver.com
www.OliverReports.com
Tel: 617.834.8205
Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
Swampscott 2018 Housing Market By The Numbers
[Click here to download a copy of this report.]Single Family Homes (SFH)
The median price of the SFHs sold in Swampscott in 2018 increased 9% to a new record of $587,250. Sales recovered, but only to the 2016 level.
Condos
The median price was influenced by the sale of 16 units in the new Avery development. Excluding those, the median price was $329,950, which was still a 12% increase. Sales were a new record, helped by the 16 at Avery.
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside
Sotheby’s International Realty
www.andrewJoliver.com
www.OliverReports.com
Tel: 617.834.8205
Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
Marblehead 2018 Housing Market By The Numbers
[Click here to download a copy of this report.]Single Family Homes (SFH)
The median price of the SFHs sold in 2018 increased 3.7% to a new record $689,500. Reflecting the shortage of supply, sales declined again to the lowest level since 2011.
Condos
The main feature of the condo market in 2018 was that two-thirds of the condos sold at or above list price.
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside
Sotheby’s International Realty
www.andrewJoliver.com
www.OliverReports.com
Tel: 617.834.8205
Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
Most Open Houses are taking place TODAY
Ahead of the first major storm of the winter, most Open Houses this weekend are taking place today:
Marblehead Open Houses
Swampscott Open Houses
Salem Open Houses
Beverly Open Houses
Lynn Open Houses
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside
Sotheby’s International Realty
www.andrewJoliver.com
www.OliverReports.com
Tel: 617.834.8205
Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
New Listings week ending January 18
With the holidays over I am resuming the publishing of new listings:
MLS, Oliver Reports
Marblehed new listings
Swampscott new listings
Salem new listings
Beverly new listings
Lynn new listings
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside
Sotheby’s International Realty
www.andrewJoliver.com
www.OliverReports.com
Tel: 617.834.8205
Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
When is the best time to buy or sell a house?
The best time to sell a home is the spring or early summer, right? But is there evidence to back up that belief? This article provides the answer to the question: when is the best time to buy or sell a home?
I looked at the median price of the Single Family Homes (SFH) sold in Essex County by quarter over the last 19 years. (Note that in all my reports, while sales numbers include all recorded MLS sales, median prices exclude distressed sales – foreclosures and short sales).
The highest price recorded each year is highlighted. This shows that in 15 of the 19 years the highest median price was recorded in Q3 – July to September; in three years the highest price was achieved in Q2, and in just one – 2000 – the highest price was in Q4. But in none of the years did Q1 see the highest price.
The next table shows the same data but with the lowest quarterly price highlighted. Here we see that in 16 of the 19 years the lowest median price was seen in Q1 and in the other 3 years it occurred in Q4, but never in Q2 or Q3.
Let me summarize these in a table:
Conclusion
While the argument has always been made that the spring or summer is the best time to sell a house because that is when there are more buyers looking (hence, more sales take place), the evidence here adds the additional information that the best prices are also achieved in the summer months.
Thus, as a seller one does indeed want to be ready to go to the market when the thermometer rises. Conversely, the best time to buy is :
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
Sounds a lot like the forecast for this weekend.
If you – or somebody you know – are considering buying or selling a home and have questions about the market and/or current home prices, feel free to contact me on 617.834.8205 or Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com.
Read How should I choose the broker to sell my house?
Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
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@OliverReports
Conforming mortgage limit jumps 14% for Essex County
Late last year, in the midst of the annual turkey celebration, the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, announced the new conforming loan mortgage limits for 2019. The conforming loan limit is the maximum mortgage size that Fannie and Freddie are allowed to purchase. Freddie and Fannie are the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that purchase mortgages, bundle and securitize them, and then sell them to investors through Wall Street and other channels.
Loans above the conforming limit are jumbo mortgages.
For 2019 the conforming limit for most of the country increases 6.9% (the amount the FHFA index of home prices increased from Q3 2017 to Q3 2018), raising the new ceiling to $484,350.
But in Essex County, one of the “higher-cost areas”, the limit jumped a whopping 14% to $688,850.
While most articles about mortgage affordability focus on how little one can put down – e.g. 3% – I would like to suggest a different approach. With the new limit of $688,850 a buyer could buy a $1 million house with 31% down and still have a conventional mortgage.
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside
Sotheby’s International Realty
www.andrewJoliver.com
www.OliverReports.com
Tel: 617.834.8205
Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
Open Houses Today: Go Pats!
Note that, because the Patriots are playing at 1:05, many of the Open Houses are early, so check the timing.
Marblehead Open Houses
Swampscott Open Houses
Salem Open Houses
Beverly Open Houses
Lynn Open Houses
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty
www.OliverReports.com
Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com
Tel: 617.834.8205
Marblehead Price Typo
My thick fingers typed $589,500 instead of $689,500 in yesterday’s Housing Headlines for Marblehead and Swampscott post.
The correct number was in the table and I have corrected the narrative in the original article.
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty,
www.OliverReports.com
Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com
Tel: 617.834.8205
Housing Headlines for Marblehead and Swampscott
Marblehead
The median price of the Single Family Homes (SFH) sold in Marblehead in 2018 increased 3.7% to a new record of $689,500. Sales dropped to the lowest level since 2011.
Swampscott
After finally breaking the 2005 peak of $517,300 in 2017, the median price jumped 10.8% in 2018. Sales recovered to the 2016 level, but were below the levels of 2013-2015.
Detailed reports on both markets (and several others) will be published in the near future.
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty
www.OliverReports.com
Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com
Tel: 617.834.8205
Open Houses weekend January 12/13
Note that, because the Patriots are playing at 1:05 on Sunday, there are more Open Houses today than tomorrow, and many of tomorrow’s are early, so check the timing.
Marblehead Open Houses
Swampscott Open Houses
Salem Open Houses
Beverly Open Houses
Lynn Open Houses
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty
www.OliverReports.com
Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com
Tel: 617.834.8205
Open Houses Sunday January 6
Here are today’s Open Houses:
Marblehead Open Houses
Swampscott Open Houses
Salem Open Houses
Beverly Open Houses
Lynn Open Houses
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty
www.OliverReports.com
617.834.8205
Housing Supply is limited in Marblehead and Swampscott
In my Inventory starts 2019 continuing rising trend article yesterday I commented: While inventory has been increasing steadily for some months, in absolute terms it is still low.
Inventory in New England is always low in the first few months of the year, and activity in the first quarter of the year is very weather dependent, but in this article I show the current inventory (in terms of months of supply*) for Marblehead and Swampscott, as well as for Essex County overall.
Marblehead
Only 3 houses currently for sale under $600,000 and only 18 under $1 million.
Swampscott
Just 10 houses for sale under $1 million.
Essex County
Very limited supply under $1 million.
* a market is generally regarded as being in equilibrium between buyers and sellers when supply is 6 months
Comment
The economy is still strong, if slowing somewhat, and mortgage rates have dropped back to 4.5%.
It is early January and it is New England and winter, but there do seem to be opportunities for sellers in many price ranges.
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty
www.OliverReports.com
617.834.8205
Open Houses weekend January 5/6
The holidays are over, the family has gone home, the stock market has gyrated like it was New Year’s Eve on steroids, mortgage rates looked at 5%, blinked and came back to 4.5% against all predictions, the economy is still doing well and we all want a calm and stress-free 2019.
Meanwhile, here are the weekend’s Open Houses:
Marblehead Open Houses
Swampscott Open Houses
Salem Open Houses
Beverly Open Houses
Lynn Open Houses
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty
www.OliverReports.com
617.834.8205
Inventory starts 2019 continuing rising trend
Inventory in New England is always low in the first few months of the year, but it is significant that it has increased Year-on-Year (YOY) for the last 7 months for Single Family Homes (SFH) and for the last 8 months for Condos.
SFH
Condos
Comment
While inventory has been increasing steadily for some months, in absolute terms it is still low. In tomorrow’s blog post I shall break down the supply by price in local markets.
Andrew Oliver
Realtor, Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty
www.OliverReports.com
617.834.8205
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