Last hurrah? Home sales soar as the end of the tax credit nears
Pending sales of single-family homes jumped 27 percent in March over last year, while condos were up 38 percent, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reports this morning.
Sales were up on a comparable basis month-over-month.
Gaudy numbers indeed - and hardly unexpected. After all, the end of the federal home buyer tax credit looms on April 30th and there have long been predictions of a grand finale of frenzied buying before the deadline, especially by first timers.
That said, pending sales have to be treated cautiously. On the plus side of the ledger, they are the freshest indicator of current market activity, representing homes put under agreement but which have not yet actually closed.
And that's key in this current housing market. There are still lots of skittish banks and nervous appraisers, with some amount of initial sale agreements bound to wash out before the closing.
Meanwhile, as we near the finish line, the real estate industry, both locally and nationally, is doing everything it can to cheer buyers on as the tax credit finish line approaches.
Check out this release on the "first-ever Realtor Nationwide Open House Weekend" coming up this Saturday and Sunday.
The idea is to blitz prospective home buyers with open houses and get in as many last minute sales as possible. It's being held in conjunction with a series of "homebuyer fairs" being put on this Saturday by MassHousing, a quasi state authority that has emerged as a major lending source for first-time buyers.
At the homebuyer fairs, slated to take place Saturday at five malls across the state, prospective first time buyers can meet Realtors, talk to MassHousing-approved lenders, and, with their loan paperwork in hand, top it all off with a round of visits to various open houses.
The "event will give those buyers the opportunity to look at as many open houses as possible in one weekend and do it in time to potentially take advantage of the homebuyer tax credit," said Kevin Sears, MAR's president, in a press statement.
Of course, no pressure here at all to buy, now is there?
