bostonbubble.com

[melonleftcoast]

Hi. I'm looking to move back to the Boston area from the West Coast and have been following the Boston market closely for the past couple months.

I just thought I'd make an observation regarding properties that I have been following in a few communities (<$650K, 3+bed): Wayland, Lexington, Sudbury, Arlington, Belmont, Concord, Lincoln, Acton, Wellesley.

For January, there were many price drops and very few Under Agreements. Then, about two weeks ago, there has been a surge of Under Agreements. Are buyers coming back? Or, is that buyers have been here, but sellers were not considering their below asking price offers, and now they are?

Does anyone have more (ie realtor, seller, buyer) information?

Thanks!
melonleftcoast

[admin]

The author of the Paper Economy blog does a monthly piece on Arlington, which might be a good place to ask this question as he does a good job of tracking things there. He told me a few days ago that the sales for February have been almost nonexistent there. I assume that there is non-negligible delay between when a property goes under agreement and when the sale is recorded, so perhaps the spike will show up in the sales later. If the delay is long enough, could the under agreement changes just be seasonal? What are you using to get your numbers?

- admin

[Guest]

I have seen a uptick in pending properties. But over the last two-three months there are more "reactivated" listings from deals falling through (lack of financing, change of mind, etc).

Here is the area I am looking at:
Price Range: Up to $475,000 (right below jumbo-loan amounts)

Communities:
FRAMINGHAM, NATICK, NEEDHAM, WALTHAM, WATERTOWN

From Feb 4th - Feb 17th
32 Properties went Pending

From Feb 18th - March 3rd
41 Properties went Pending

[admin]

Could you post a link to the website you are using to get the numbers?

Thanks,
- admin

[Brian C]

[melonleftcoast]

I've counted 8 properties that have gone under agreement in the past couple of weeks on my "Saved Listings" on nemoves.com (<$650K, 3+bed, >1500sq ft) in Weston, Wellesley and Wayland.

I don't have a detailed/organized system for tracking this, but there seems to have been a bit of a surge compared to the previous month.

Honestly, I've stopped looking in Arlington because I feel the quality of the high school (we are looking to buy for very long term) does not warrant the cost of housing. That said, with the quality of the elementary schools, one could surmise that the test scores would improve for the high school in 10 years. However, I don't want to take that bet with my kids education.

[john p]

Where is your real estate office in Weston, ,, lk;ad I mean to say, when you move to Boston where is the location of your new workplace?

[Hard Rain]

Be wary of pending sales statistics. The pending sales index is generated by realtors with no outside verification or over site. It has only been in existence since 2005 and is considered unreliable by most. Considering the fact the NAR has hardly been forthcoming through out the downturn I would assign little weight to that stat....

[admin]

[Guest]

Admin - John,

Nice catch fellas...

[john p]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation

"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." (Matt. 10:16)

This is my f-ing town and this is the forbidden forest; don't mess around with my people...

[melonleftcoast]

hmmm. i'm not sure why I'm being attacked, or why some of you are so suspicious. i'm just a mom looking for a good place to raise kids, not a realtor looking for business. thanks for reminding me how assuming and rude some people in Boston can be... I'd forgotten in the two years since I'd moved away.

I am currently sitting on the sunny SF Peninsula enjoying the 60-70F weather, wishing we could afford a house in the good school districts here.

I included only houses in Weston, Wayland and Wellesley in my second post because they group together nicely on the sort in the nemoves.com saved listings and I didn't have too much time to go through all of them.

I've since removed Arlington and Acton from my list of towns we are looking in (Acton because it's just too far out).

Thanks to those of you who didn't assume I'm a realtor and have posted good information, which seems to support what I had also noticed, a bit of a surge in Under Agreements in the past couple of weeks.

We'll be looking to buy in a year or so, and hopefully, the sale prices will continue their downward trend.

[admin]

[john p]

If you live on the West Coast, my apologies. It's a New England tradition to tar and feather people and ask questions later.

If you're not from the West Coast I'd be careful about being caught. Misleading people in this environment with lots of powerful eyes is not a long term strategy for success.

[melonleftcoast]

"If you live on the West Coast, my apologies. It's a New England tradition to tar and feather people and ask questions later."

And this is the sense of humor that I miss so much !!

"Step back into the third person for a moment and imagine what a Realtor's posts would look like if she wanted to talk up the area. Combine that with the discrepancy between where you say you are and where your computer says you are, and I think you will see that some caution is warranted. "

I don't know why my IP address would be from Boston, other than we had this computer with us in Boston before we moved here? I think we use ygnition for our internet provider here ... i don't remember hearing of them when we lived in Boston (well, we lived in Arlington, actually). My husband might know since he set up our network.

Yes, I could see how my questions could appear to be from a realtor, if one was suspicious and/or had that happen before. If I had provided more personal information in my original post and explained my questions a bit better, would I have escaped the "tar and feathering"?

As for Arlington, I only included it in my list in my initial post because it had been ONE of the several towns on my saved search updates until a couple of days ago when I removed it, along with Acton. I wasn't saying there was a surge of Under Agreements in just Arlington, but in ALL the towns that I listed and in the price range/size, and I haven't been distinguishing between the towns. That was why I posted on this blog, with the hope of finding someone with access to MLS (a realtor) or someone who is compiling data much better than I (thanks Brian C.) that maybe had access to actual numbers to see if there was an increase in Under Agreements, rather than just my anectdotal "saved listings" updates.

I don't have access to the MLS, and it is hard for me to accurately track this info on nemoves. I'm starting to use a few other sites more (I'm not going to name them because maybe I'll be accused of being a realtor again!) that give more info like days on market and have much better maps.

Thanks,
mel