From double-digit expectations to double-digit disappointments

admin October 2, 2005

0 Comments

About this time last year, CNN/Money Magazine reported that a survey by economists Karl Case of Wellesley College and Robert Shiller of Yale revealed that home owners in Boston, Milwaukee, San Francisco and California’s Orange County were “counting on double-digit growth [in real estate appreciation for] EACH YEAR for the next ten years. Just twelve months later, some of those double-digit expectations are turning into double-digit disappointments, at least in Boston. Beneath the median and average prices that Realtors report going up, up, up every month; price changes on individual properties are crushing seller expectations and falling faster than consumer confidence.

We’d be glad to send you an example of a listing that has been canceled once, expired twice, and been listed by two different real estate agencies. Originally listed for $750,000, the property could sell now for under $600,000 — a savings of $150,000 or over 20%. This trend will become more wide spread as interest rates, still near a forty year low, return to traditional levels.

That’s not the kind of information you’ll get from traditional real estate listing agencies because their legal obligation is to get the highest price for their seller clients, even in a falling market. You won’t get it from dual agents or designated agents either, because representing the buyer and seller in the same transaction is an obvious conflict of interest (even if they try tell you otherwise). So, if you’d like to learn about other double-digit markdowns in Greater Boston area (or anywhere), contact The Real Estate Cafe. Our rebates and zero tolerance conflict of interest policy are unrivaled in New England. For more information or a referral to someone who can help you outside Boston, email us or call 617-661-4046.

Categories: Real Estate Bubble

Asking prices drop by nearly 15% in 16 suburban Boston towns

Homeowners in Greater Boston and elsewhere continue to expect "big real estate gains" despite a stunning revelation this week: "asking prices in 16 MetroWest towns have dropped by nearly 15 percent" since August, according to MLS statistics. "All good things come to an end," economist and housing guru Karl Case told real estate reporter, Sue Brickman of the Weston Town Crier. Commenting on "a spreading inventory problem" and "a sea change on the demand side which we have been expecting for a long time," Case predicted that "prices are going to fall back to a justifiable level, because people are running out of gas (interest)." Noting that current price reductions will not show up in industry statistics for some time, Case was guarded — but cautious — in his assessment of the market:

"We’ll see some softness for a while, but I don’t see a collapse. But I say that not with a hell of a lot of conviction."

admin October 8, 2005

0 Comments

Boston housing market 2006: “Hard landing” or “return to normalcy”?

Three weeks after economist Nicholas Perna told the Boston Globe that "both early data and the anecdotes — are pointing more toward a hard rather than a soft landing" for the [Massachusetts] housing market, Perna repeated that assessment in the Boston Herald following news that single-family home sales fell 9.2 percent in November. Need to confirm, but isn’t that the four month this year of near double-digit decreases compared to 2004?

"It sounds more and more like the housing adjustment is a harder landing in Massachusetts than elsewhere in the country,’ said economist Nicholas Perna. ‘I don’t think we are seeing anything like that in the country as a whole. My guess is that Massachusetts is among the most seriously affected."

Some real estate professionals dismissed the significance of falling sales, calling them a "return to normalcy." What’s your take? Your comments are welcome below, or on our readers’ "record your own podcast" line: 617-876-2117.

admin December 30, 2005

0 Comments

Dual agency detective asks, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

Cartoon caption contest: 1. Do-it-yourself homebuyers, have you encountered this situation during your house hunt, particularly just before you make an offer? 2. Home sellers,…

admin March 11, 2011

0 Comments

Will price corrections revive slumping market?

After a series of front page stories on the real estate bubble in the Boston Globe this year, their parent company, The New York Times, put this headline on page one today: "Slowing Is Seen in Housing Prices in Hot Markets." Citing statistics about slowing sales, rising inventories, and flattening prices in Boston and elsewhere…

The question remains whether all of this represents a momentary cooling
off of some overheated housing markets, or it presages a more
pronounced downturn that would end a decade-long boom.

admin October 4, 2005

0 Comments

Single family sales drop 10% in MA

Real estate headlines seem to be everywhere these days, from today’s lead story in USA Today, — the second in two weeks, to Monday’s "Condo a Go-Go" story and slide show in the New York Times, to Saturday’s story in the Washington Post about a Playboy centerfold who is giving up her modeling to become a real estate investor.

Despite those sexy news angles and industry spin that "everything is coming up roses," the most revealing finding for home buyers and sellers in Massachusetts is today’s Boston Globe Business headline:

State home sales sag 10% in April.

According to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, the number of single-family homes sold in April was down 10.4 percent
from 2004, marking the first double-digit
decline since April 2003.

admin May 25, 2005

0 Comments

Responses

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Articles

Responses