Mass. home sales fall in October

Mass. home sales fall in October
Prices decline for 2d month, but the condo market is still strong
By Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff | November 29, 2005

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/11/29/mass_home_sales_fall_in_october/

Mortgage limit raised to $417,000
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/11/29/mortgage_limit_raises_to_417000/

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Mass. home sales slide 11% in a year – The Boston Globe – Boston.com – Business

Link: Mass. home sales slide 11% in a year – The Boston Globe – Boston.com – Business.

”We’ve got a flashing yellow light," Bill Wendel, owner of the Real Estate Cafe in Cambridge, said about April and May sales.

”Supply is going up, demand is going down, and we’re still at record-low interest rates. When these rates go up," he said, ”sellers are going to have trouble."

US Housing markets entering sustained decline?

Using market trends detailed in an article in the Boston Globe today entitled, US Housing market seen declining in 2006, economist Michael
Bazdarich concluded:

"…we believe housing is due for a sustained decline…  The remaining questions are
how hard the fall will be and when it will begin." 

Take a look at The Real Estate Cafe’s graph of 32,000 expired listings in Massachusetts below, then let us know if you think the decline has already begun and how far prices will fall.  If you are housing hunting now in Greater Boston, what kind of price reductions are you seeing and do you agree that the "holiday season is an ideal time to buy?"

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. 

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