Boston real estate: Reality is starting to set in with the realty industry – major sales declines ahead
The spring and summer months are traditionally the hottest Boston real estate season, but the leading economist for the National Association of Realtors predicts real estate sales could drop as much as 40% during this time dues to the coronavirus outbreak.
Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, said in a press conference:
“Market activity will be lower in the next couple of months, I won’t be surprised if sales activity could be down 30% or even 40% in the next months.”
Still, Yun doesn’t expect home prices to decline due to the lack of sale.
“There’s no indication that fewer buyer activity will lead to price declines,” Yun said. “Sellers won’t [decrease] prices and buyers aren’t expecting lower prices.”
In the Boston real estate market, March sales activity partially captured the effects of the efforts to contain the pandemic, which included social distancing and the shutdown of non-essential businesses in many parts of the country.
Nationally, While housing sales edged up 0.8% from a year ago, the increase was boosted largely by sales of homes priced at $250,000 and higher. Homes priced at $100,000 or less saw a 18% drop in year-over-year sales, while homes between $100,000 and $250,000 fell 4%.
Yun also added;
“Unfortunately, we knew home sales would wane in March due to the coronavirus outbreak,”
According the the National Association Of Realtors:
The median existing-home price for March across all housing types stood at $280,600, an 8% uptick from a year ago. Overall, March added to 97 consecutive months of year-over-year price gains.
Boston real estate
Single-family home sales declined by more than 18% year-over-year in the lowest tier price range.
Another March statistic that foretells what’s to come for the housing market is the disappearing number of sellers.
From Yahoo News:
Last month’s inventory of 1.50 million homes for sale was the lowest March figure on records dating back to 1999, according to the NAR. That was also down 10.2% from a year ago.
The current inventory sits at a 3.4 months supply, meaning it would take that long to sell every house on the market, a decrease from 3.8 months in March 2019.
“Earlier in the year, we watched inventory gradually tick upward but with the current quarantine recommendations in place, fewer sellers are listing homes, which will limit buyer choices,” Yun said in a press release. “Significantly more listings are needed and more will come on to the market once the economy steadily reopens
