This state of the real estate market is more personal, but for those of us who like facts and figures, some interesting ones can be found at the bottom of this article.
While on a rare vacation, one of my listings came back on the market due to a change in the buyers‘ circumstances. I put the house back on the market remotely, using my back on the market process (which thankfully I don’t have to use too often), and planned for an open house immediately upon our return. However, I didn’t need to do another open house because the house was already under agreement again before we returned from California, thanks to a buyer agent working with me remotely.
Do I think people are really waiting to see how the election turns out before deciding or moving forward on buying or selling real estate? It doesn’t seem like it. Most of my transactions are lifestyle based—empty nesters after kids are grown, adult children of these empty nesters who are moving out of the renting and dating world, divorce, siblings selling their parents’ homes, etc.
During Covid, we saw a lot of people who sold just because they could make a huge profit and they were willing to live in their camper, on their boat, with their friends, etc., until the market cooled. This strategy made sense at the time, but the market still hasn’t cooled. I actually saw one set of buyers several times throughout 2022 and 2023 because they had sold their house at what they thought was the height of the market, which resulted in them alternating between living on their boat, and Airbnbs, as they attempted to buy in an even more competitive market. I always wondered where those people ended up, since still now we tend to see the same buyers over and over again at open houses.
My listings over the past month have had plenty of activity as far as showings and open houses, but I see buyers being just a little more discerning – – they are accustomed to the fact that they missed the proverbial boat on the lowest interest rates of all time, and are deciding that life must go on (and hopefully rates drop and they can refinance), and for those who don’t want to continue renting, they just want to make sure they aren’t settling for a house they don’t love, with their higher mortgage payments.
A few statistics:
Year over year (2023 vs 2024) housing prices have risen substantially in the towns and small cities in central Massachusetts. (Statistics courtesy of Zillow).
A few local examples of year over year (2023 vs 2024) home price increases are:
In Princeton, the average home price is $600,599, up 5.1%
In Westminster, the average home price is $511,585, up 7.7%
In Gardner, the average home price is $356,924, which is up a whopping 8.5%
In Leominster, the average home price is 445,021, up 7.1%
In Holden, the average home price is $533,029, which is up 7.2%
In Winchendon, the average home price is $370,718, which is up 7.7%
Notable is that the percentage price increases are greater, the lower the average price for a town, with the exception of Westminster, with its easy access to route 2 and the Wachusett Station MBTA Commuter Rail. This implies that although the specific town is important, people want to live in our region (Central Massachusetts), and as the towns closer to Boston become more expensive, people are buying further west, including to Gardner and Winchendon, driving up those prices as well.
For the record, inflation has been fairly moderate over the past year, at 2.4% (Sept 2023 to 2024), so these housing price increases are real, and not just driven by inflation.