Drop in homes on market, while good nationally, is a very bad sign here
For-sale signs are a little harder to spot this fall.
The number of homes for sale is dropping, both across the country and here in Massachusetts.
And while the drop in "inventory," as it's called in the business, might be good news in a grossly overbuilt market like Las Vegas, it is definitely bad news here, especially in still pricey Greater Boston.
Here are two numbers to munch on from a piece in this week's Banker & Tradesman.
The number of homes on the market was down 5.3 percent in August compared to a year earlier. July saw a 1.7 percent year-over-year drop in inventory.
Meanwhile, sales activity, while still anemic, has begun to pick up after hitting rock bottom last summer with the expiration of the home buyer tax credit, may it rest in peace. Sales rose 15.8 percent in August compared to August 2010, the paper reports, citing figures from real estate data firm, The Warren Group, its parent company.
And the dwindling choices out there have left more than a few potential buyers, like jhwilly, spinning their wheels.
She weighed in recently on my post on the fall market. Stuck in a cramped apartment with her two small children, jhwilly and her husband have been unable to find anything to buy at a decent price, despite scouring the South Shore. They are now considering trying to buy land and building, but that's no picnic either.
At a time when buyers are supposed to have an edge, it's the sellers who are acting haughty, she finds.
My husband and I have been looking for a house to buy on the south shore since April and with the exception of one house that we put an offer on that the seller rejected we have not found anything worth buying. We still feel that the majority of homes on the market are over-priced especially for the condition they are in. In addition, our experience has been that the sellers seem to think that it is a seller's market and not a buyer's market. We have found the majority of the sellers to be very indignant and not willing to negotiate. Almost every time we go to see a house the first thing we are told is that the seller is firm on their asking price and will not negotiate which my husband and I usually find very amusing for the economy we are in. Unfortunately we cannot sit on the sidelines for the next couple of years to see if the market gets better since we are living in a cramped apartment with 2 small children. So now we are looking into the option of just building the type of home we want - if we can just find a decent lot of land. Not sure how much luck we will have with that either!
