The eve of Groundhog’s Day
Have you noticed that it is not fully dark at 5 PM anymore? Tomorrow is Groundhog’s Day. This celebration has folk roots, pagan roots, and is just plain psychologically brilliant to me.
On December 21st, or thereabouts, the northern hemisphere is tipped the farthest from the sun, making the days short. From that day onward the days get longer, until day and night are even on March 21st, or thereabouts. Groundhog’s Day falls just about in the middle between shortest and even. The general term for this is Mid-Winter.
Winter is generally the slow time in real estate. Fewer people put their houses on the market. Buyers have a harder time getting from showing to showing, so there are fewer of them. Houses demonstrate their weather-tightness – for better or for worse.
My winter business has been bumping along. I do a little more than the typical agent because I work with the intrepid winter leftover shoppers. I have been surprised at the number of new listings and early re-listings this year. Given the repeated snowfall, I am doubly surprised.
This Sunday open house touring was Hell on wheels, literally. Walkers had a much better time of it. Every parking spot I used was not at a curb, but at a snow bank. Every neighborhood with an open house had a slow-down spot where oncoming cars had to wiggle around one another because of the parking bottleneck. At one place, in Somerville, the police got involved.
This week, I saw a higher volume of buyers coming through properties at the low to moderate end of the expected price range open houses. The only really quiet open house I saw was at a middle-to-high priced single family house. (Everything I saw was new to the market.)
I am looking forward to the turn of the season. Happy Groundhog’s Day.
