Attention Boston condo sellers: Ever wonder why some houses stay on the market for months while others sell within weeks of being listed? Jay Papasan, VP of Publishing and co-author of a number real estate best-sellers, offers a very simple explanation in this video.

From David Streitfeld at the NY Times: U.S. Housing Aid Winds Down, and Cities Worry

Streitfeld discusses the Fed’s Mortgage Backed Securities purchase program (scheduled to end next month), the housing tax credit (contracts must be signed by the end of April, and deals closed by the end of June), and the slight tightening of FHA requirements. Wow. Did anyone here see this coming?

Here’s my favorite excerpt from today’s NY Times:

“If the government were not to continue the same level of support, it would be very detrimental, like cutting the legs off a wobbling child and expecting it to run a marathon,” he said. “It’s very possible we’ll still be at this level of need five years from now.”

Now that sounds like a normal, healthy market doesn’t it?

When Boston condo buyers find a condo that they like, one of the first questions they ask me is “Why are the sellers moving?” This is a personal question and not all sellers are willing to say, “Because it is personal.”

As a listing agent we are obligated to protect the seller’s interests and if they request that we not disclose their reason for moving, we don’t disclose it. Job relocations, divorces, loss of a job all are personal, and a buyer does not have a right to know that information. A buyer has a right to know anything and everything about a property they are considering buying.

But if a seller wants to keep his private stuff private, does that in some way effect the value of the condo? I don’t think so.

Today, I hope to be taking a listing. In doing so, I’ll explain to the seller that the potential buyers will ask why they are moving and what are they comfortable with me disclosing. Sometimes there is no problem and a seller will say downsizing, relocating, etc. but sometimes things are a whole lot more complicated, like a divorce or perhaps a job change where the seller’s current employer hasn’t been told yet.

So I’m wondering, how important is it to you, as a buyer, if I don’t disclose why the owner is sellling? Does it have any impact on the market value of the condo?

I have noticed that investors have reemerged in the Boston condo market (condos below $400,000), triggering in some cases bidding wars in some neighborhoods. For example, over the holiday weekend, Vilma in my office, had several offers on a small studio located at 21 Beacon Street, which prompted interest from both first-time homebuyers and cash investors.

With Boston condo prices down from their peaks, all-cash investors appear to be snapping up the cheapest properties and helping clear out the excess supply of low-priced Boston condos on the market. They’re betting that the market has hit bottom or will soon.

But that’s of little consolation to traditional home buyers, who find themselves at a disadvantage because their offers usually hinge on financing contingencies, appraisals and home inspections. I also noticed some sellers will actually accept a lower sales price over a traditional mortgage offer.

Just curious, has anyone else been noticing this trend?

From the Boston Globe:

For the first time in at least two decades, more US residents are moving to Massachusetts than moving out, a dramatic turnaround that has helped fuel the state’s sharpest population growth since 2001, according to new estimates from the US Census Bureau.

The increase, which was recorded from July 2008 to July 2009, stunned demographers accustomed to a yearly exodus of residents packing up and moving to warmer climes. Taking into account the number of people who left the state and the number who entered, the net gain was only 3,600, but it was the first time that number has been positive in 20 years.

The relative resilience of the Massachusetts economy, coupled with a softer housing market in the state, helped attract and retain residents, demographers said. At the same time, high unemployment and tumbling housing prices forced residents who might have left the state in better times to stay put.

File under: Good news for sellers.