Is Boston real estate returning to a more "normal” situation?
The real estate market in Boston is cooling off with some experts calling it a return to normal, according to Curbed-Boston. Fresh data from the Warren Group and the Greater Boston Association of Realtors shows that sales of single-family homes and condos were still slightly up in September in the Boston area as compared to last year. The researchers looked at closed deals in 64 towns and cities, including Boston and discovered that prices were either up only slightly last month or down. Inventory levels overall were also up.
“The sellers’ market is likely over, or at least the balance has shifted,” Jim Major, president of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors and an agent with Century 21 North East in Woburn, said in a statement. “With sale prices having begun to stabilize, more homes and condos available for sale, and properties sitting on the market longer, home values have most likely peaked in many areas.” Major also described the regional market as “a more normal” one in September—not necessarily one that’s a bonanza for buyers, but perhaps trending toward that.
Single-family sales in the Boston region increased 6.5 percent in September, to 1,060, compared with the same month in 2018, though the number was down more than 32 percent from August, which is traditionally busier anyway because of summer relocations.
Meanwhile, the median sales price for a Boston-area single-family reached a September record of $605,000, a relatively modest 1.7 percent gain from the year before, though again off from August, when the median price was $640,000.