State of the Market - Boston / Suffolk County, MA

[Charlie MacPherson]

The sales figures for Q3 2018 are out.  As compared to Q3 2017, here's what they say:

Median Sales Price: $552,500, up 10.5%

Average Sales Price: $741,561, up 1.9%

% of Original Price Received: 100.1%, up 0.1%

Homes for Sale: 254, down 2.7%

Closed Sales: 397, down 2.5%

Months Supply: 2.3, up 2.9%

Days on Market: 33, down 9.3%

So sales average prices are slightly up, there's not much discounting at all and there's still a shortage of inventory, but there's a slight improvement in that number.  

Those homes that sell are doing so very quickly, as DOM are calculated from the listing date to the closing date.  Given that most residential loans take between 30 and 45 days to close, 33 DOM is pretty stunning.  My bet is that there are probably a bunch of actual cash buyers who are closing in a few days and are pulling this number down.

Bottom line: The Boston market is still very strong, but is suffering from a shortage of properties.  I think it's fair to say that the rate of price increases seems to be slowing.  If I had a property to sell in Boston, I'd pull the trigger right now.