Sam's review, 2011
Today, our Monday guy, Sam Schneiderman, Broker-owner of Greater Boston Home Team, looks back over the past year for a final wrap.
Last January, I predicted what I thought was going happen in the 2011 real estate market by saying that 2011 would be “the year of confusion and reconciliation.”
I wish I had been wrong, but I think that 2011 was indeed a year of confusion and reconciliation in the Greater Boston real estate market. Buyers and sellers were confused about what was happening nationally vs. locally. Buyers leapt into the market expecting to bargain prices and motivated sellers, only to find many over-priced junky properties in challenging locations. Statistics may show abundant inventory, but most buyers can’t find a decent house or a condo in a financially stable, well maintained association.
Successful Sellers finally reconciled that if they wanted to sell, they need to get realistic about pricing and present their home in marketable condition for their price range. Last year’s most successful listing agents began working with their seller-clients well before their property hit the market to assure a good product at a competitive price and then they marketed it aggressively to the brokerage community. The days of “pocket listings” (where agents don’t share a listing with other agents) are distant memories.
I am thrilled to report that I was dead wrong about where I thought that interest rates would go this year. The good news is that rates are down from where they began at the beginning of the year. That’s good news because it has brought some buyers into the market that could not have otherwise afforded a home of their own. It is bad news because it makes numbers work better for many of the investors that are buying up low end property instead of letting it sell to buyers that are desperately looking for an affordable home.
While lower rates should have motivated many buyers, some are taking their time because they think that low rates and low prices are going to be with us for a while.
Locally, I think that the lower rates helped to bring stability to some mid-market and higher end communities, particularly those known for their schools.
PERSPECTIVE:
Although there are some readers who will disagree, I believe that in 2011 Greater Boston we began a slow climb out of the trough that signaled the bottom of the market in some communities. I also predicted that the 2011 market would jerk along in no predictable way and we’d have a seasonal fall-winter rollback in prices (not rocket science there!) and here we are.
Let me take this opportunity to wish you all the best that this time of the year has to offer.
What was notable about the 2011housing market from your perspective?
