Now that April is here, the peak real estate market is now. Anyone who may have held off on listing a house over the winter has likely just listed it. There will be more listings coming on over the spring, as people who may have planned to list a house, but who have not yet done so are likely still doing a few updates that they may have wanted to do. But, April 1, is generally about the peak of the home selling season.
Depending on the community, the market has started the year a little more sluggish than last year. In Newton, however, that is not the case. While on-market listings are up as of this date last year, at 206 individual property listings, compared with 163 on the same date last year (April 8), the average days-on-market is actually down by 12 days! The biggest increase is the number of condo listings thus far this year, which has gone up by about 40%. The market does seem to be absorbing the listings without much difficulty.
While the year started off a little more sluggishly in other communities, that seems to show signs of changing, as conforming interest rates have dropped to their lowest rates in over a year, resulting in increased market activity everywhere. After having peaked out this past fall at just under 5%, conforming rates are currently around 4%, and the Fed has indicated that there will likely be no interest rate hikes for the remainder of this year. While mortgage rates are generally set by the 10 year bond rate, there is a strong relationship between the bond rate and the prime rate.
You will find the accompanying charts for last year’s market statistics for numerous communities in and around Newton and other communities just outside of or to the west of Boston.
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