The Lamacchia Housing Report presents overall home sale statistics and highlights the average sale prices for single families, condominiums, and multi-family homes in Massachusetts and New Hampshire for June 2020 compared to June 2019. It also looks at other metrics in Massachusetts like Homes Listed for Sale, Homes Pending, and Price Adjustments made to active listings, as they are often the best indicators for predicting future trends in the market.
This month’s report will be particularly unique and dramatic due to the impacts of COVID and the massive amount of home sellers that didn’t list their homes in late March and early April when the lockdown first hit.
Massachusetts Home Sales Down 26.04%
Following suit from the past couple of months, home sales are down in June 2020 over June 2019. Typical June performance sees an increase in sales, but these past few years have been behaving differently because of diminishing inventory. This year sales are even lower than last due to COVID.
Prices have again increased by 4.3%, from $464,057 last year to $483,918 in June of 2020. Single families and condos increased in price; single families by 6.5% and condos by 5.3%. Multi-families decreased by a very slight 1%.
Homes Listed for Sale:
There was a 2.3% decrease in the number of homes listed for sale in June 2020 over June 2019. Sellers are still hesitating to list due to concerns about job loss and the spread of the virus, but most notably because many are concerned that they won’t have a place to move to after their home sells. With buyers consuming whatever inventory is listed, it’s a tough market to secure a home right now and a lot of sellers are opting to stay put until this market calms down.
Pending Home Sales:
Pending home sales are up over last year by 10.8% which is a little over 1,100 homes placed under agreement. Compile that increase with a decrease in the number of homes placed on the market, and you have our current market which has the highest absorption rate ever of about 105%. A typical seller’s market is about 20%, so right now homes are moving 5 times faster than normal and are leaving us with less than a month’s supply of homes on the market, which is a historic low.
As you can see in the chart below, the percent of homes that have gone pending over the number that was listed is the highest in the past few weeks than it has ever been.
Price Changes:
Price changes have decreased by 23.5% as the competition for homes is so high that many sellers don’t have to adjust prices to attract more buyers. Many buyers who are seriously searching for homes in this market are likely prepared to strike in a bidding war which is their first line of defense in multiple offer situations.
New Hampshire Home Sales Down 28.5%
New Hampshire, like Massachusetts, exhibited a decrease in sales and an increase in prices when compared to June 2019. Sales saw a 28.5% decrease with 421 fewer sales. There was a decrease in sales for all three categories and an 8.8% increase in prices by $28,691 overall. Prices increased in single families and multi-families but decreased slightly in condos.
What’s Ahead?
We are experiencing a historic low in the supply of homes as recently explained in Anthony Lamacchia’s recent market update.
Buyers are consuming homes faster then they are being listed leaving us with less than a month’s supply of homes on the market right now. Mortgage rates at record lows are also motivating buyers to buy and are making it less expensive for a mortgage that may be higher due to increasing prices and multiple offer situations. Buyers should be ready to strike in a bidding war.
As of early June, everything started to try and climb towards where it should be at this time of year but the market just can’t seem to catch up. Sellers aren’t selling fast enough to compensate for the COVID shut down, and buyers who’ve been wanting to buy are hungrier than ever.
It is a seller’s market more than it has ever been, so sellers should prepare their homes quickly and list to take advantage of where the market is right now! It is a bit frightening for sellers to list right now due to concerns that their homes will sell faster than they’ll find a new home to move into, but your Realtor will help you devise a selling and buying timeline that works for you and your goals. As well, agents are implementing safe showing protocols to ensure the safety of sellers, buyers, and other agents.
Our COVID-19 Resource page is a tool designed to answer questions that homeowners, buyers, and sellers have about how all of this will impact their real estate goals. There are videos in which Anthony explains the market and how it’s being impacted, blog resources, news articles, and more.