"Say, How's The Market Doing?"

Almost every single day we're asked "how's the market doing?"...It's a fair question. Homeowners are always curious about their most valuable asset. The market is constantly changing and the everyday business of buying and selling can effect your homes perceived value.

We pulled some numbers from the Multiple Listing Service for the 3 types of property that are sold most often in any town, Medford included: singles, multi's and condo's. We're not looking into commercial properties for this posting.

We're looking at stats from the beginning of 2013 through the month of August. Our chart shows property available for sale(green), property sold(brown) and the black line simply shows us what percentage of those listings were sold.

As you see, in plain green/brown and black, not every home offered in todays market ends up with a SOLD sign on it...How can that be? Isn't there a marked shortage of inventory nowadays? We'll discuss reasons why some listings expire in a future post.

Even with nearly 100 properties currently available, many Medford Realtors will still tell you that there's a shortage. The reason why? For every Realtor with a listing, there's another Realtor with at least a few buyers.

Open houses are still busy and many turn key properties with real curb appeal and location are receiving more than one offer to purchase. However, a certain percentage of available homes are still languishing, with approximately 25% of the total inventory on the market for over 60+ days and 10% have been on for over 90 days. This is something we will address in future posts.

Looking at the timeline from January, we can see that new listings and sales are on a somewhat parallel trajectory until April. We can see a surge in inventory, most likely due to the anticipation of a healthy spring market. At this time we also see a slight dip in closings. Most likely due to fewer homes being placed under agreement during the months prior. Typically, the cold and snowy season has a direct effect on home sales in New England.

So, how's the market doing? We can only offer our opinion...which is this: We're encouraged by what we're seeing as of late. Over 350 properties have sold in Medford since the beginning of this year and on average they were placed under agreement or sold within 30 days. Very respectable! More than a few of these properties received multiple offers, which tells us that buyers are out there in force and they're willing to compete for Medford properties. We're excited about the green line making it's way into our already fantastic commuter town. Speaking of green, homeowners are taking advantage of green initiatives, such as Solarize Medford. Programs like these are helping homeowners take steps to improve the efficiency of their properties at a savings, which can only help them more easily sell their homes down the road.

With so much to offer in terms of location, area amenities, affordability and a real sense of community spirit which Medford is known for, we think the market is going to continue to thrive.

As always, we welcome your questions and comments. Please let us know if you have any suggestions for future posts. Thank you!