Tag: South End real estate

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analytics general info

Buying Cheaper Than Renting

Another great post from Tara Steele at Agent Genius. Buying is still cheaper then renting in most markets. An interesting national story.

by  in Housing News –   

 

trulia Buying now cheaper than renting in most housing markets

Rents up, home prices up, one still reigns

According to the Trulia Winter 2013 Rent vs. Buy Report, buying a home in the top 100 major metros is cheaper than renting, even in light of home prices rising. The company analyzes homes for sale and rent on the site from December 1, 2012 to February 28, 2013 factoring in transaction costs, opportunity costs, and taxes to uncover that although rents and home prices are both rising, home ownership is still more affordable. Trulia says buying a home is 44 percent cheaper than renting nationwide, down just slightly from 46 percent in 2012.

“Although buying a home is still cheaper than renting, the gap is closing,” said Dr. Jed Kolko, Trulia’s Chief Economist. “In 2013, home prices should rise faster than rents, and mortgage rates are likely to rise in the next year as the economy improves. By next year, buying could be more expensive than renting in some housing markets, even for people with the best credit.”

Housing affordability and mortgage rates

Asking home prices rose 7.0 percent year over year in February, which outpaced rents which rose 3.2 percent in the same period. Trulia reports that low mortgage rates (averaging 3.5 percent at the end of February) have kept homeownership costs from rising, and kept affordability high.

“Even in each of the 100 largest metros, buying is more affordable than renting with the range differing significantly from being 70 percent cheaper to buy than rent in Detroit, but only 19 percent cheaper in San Francisco,” Trulia reports.

The challenge that remains for housing

While a positive portrait of homeownership emerging, the stark reality is that many potential home buyers still won’t qualify for a mortgage under current lending conditions, and those that do qualify may not enjoy the lowest of rates unless their credit is near perfect.

That said, Trulia notes that “getting a higher rate does not mean homeownership is completely out of reach. Even with a 5.5 percent mortgage rate, buying a home is still cheaper than renting in almost every market. Only in San Francisco does homeownership become slightly more expensive than renting at the higher rate.”

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analytics

What’ s Keeping Sellers From Selling?

As we are all assessing the outlook for the spring market, Scott at Boston.com has some good points, and while this post is based on national polls, we are hearing the same thing in our marketplaces.  Sellers wonder if they do list and sell there propertry, will there be anything decent to buy! An important question as we move into the spring selling season.

 

 

 

Really, why shouldn’t sellers wait for higher prices?

Posted by Scott Van Voorhis

That’s the question many potential home sellers are asking as they watch prices climb again in an increasingly tight market.

Would-be home sellers, as they consider taking the plunge, are no longer primarily concerned with the state of the economy in deciding whether to list their house now or wait. Instead, the top concern now is whether by selling now, they will pass up even bigger gains down the line if they should choose not to hold out for a few more months, Redfin reports in a new survey on seller attitudes.

It’s not that they are not interested in selling – just under half the more than 1,800 homeowners polled by Redfin said they were planning to sell, up from 45 percent in the fourth quarter. (Just to be clear, this was not a broad sampling, but rather a tally of homeowners who visited Redfin’s website.)

But 34 percent  of homeowners surveyed told Redfin that missing out on future gains was their biggest concern with diving in now, up from 30 percent at year end. Moreover, potential sellers are also growing increasingly bullish in their take on the market as well, with 81 percent now predicting more increases in home prices over the next year, up from three-quarters last fall.

Needless to say, with warmups beginning for the annual spring market, this is not a good sign. In fact, we could see some sellers sit out the spring market altogether, waiting to see if prices continue to rise. After that, we could see new inventory start to trickle on, but it seems unlikely at this point we are going to see an avalanche of new listings in the next few months.

That’s my bold prediction – feel free to jump on the comment board with your own take.

It’s certainly not what frustrated buyers, yearning for more listings to choose from, want to hear, but the market is what it is right now.

Of course, there are other factors at work here. Any broker will tell you another big concern of potential home sellers, especially here in the Boston, is the fear they won’t be able to buy anything decent if they go ahead and sell what they have now.

Not unreasonable given the precipitous drop in home listings, which fell by more than 25 percent in Boston alone over the past year, helping push prices up 4.1 percent, according to the Department of Numbers.

So why shouldn’t sellers keep holding out for more? Until buyers and brokers come with a better argument – or really any counterargument at all – sellers are likely to keep on watching and waiting instead of listing.

 

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architecture general info

Changes In The Old Neighborhood

Interesting story on southendpatch.com regarding the wonderful wooden house on Taylor Street in the South End right off of Dwight Street . Hopefully things will work out to everyones satisfaction as it is a very special property and one which many south-enders are so familiar with.

Neighbors on Taylor St. House Demolition: Conditions Were Unsafe

The original stop work order put on the 8-10 Taylor Street wooden house property was because of environmental and project concerns, neighbors say. Now, it’s related to an entirely different issue.

Imagine sitting in your home one morning and feeling the entire floor shake. That’s how Taylor Street resident Louane Hann was notified of the construction happening on her street last Tuesday.

“I was working from home, and all of a sudden, I felt the earth move,” she said. “There was a guy with a backhoe and a guy with a hose, and they were ripping the house down.”

Hann said neither she nor anyone else in the neighborhood was notified that construction would begin at the wooden house at 8-10 Taylor Street, and that it would involve demolition of the building.

“We get notices about someone getting a roof deck you can’t even see half the time, and no one got a notice about this,” she said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Couple the lack of notice with the complete surprise that the building, which neighbors thought had been approved for a renovation and addition, was being completely demolished. And the day of demolition left dust everywhere, debris on neighbors’ porches and properties, and even broke a window at a home next door, said nearby residents.

“During the demolition I saw two kids standing outside watching, and I remember thinking, ‘Is it safe for those kids to be breathing that?” Hann said. “All of these old homes have lead in the paint,” she said.

Neighbors said they called Boston’s Enviornmental Department to complain about the mess and to voice the worry that the old home contained lead paint that was now swirling through the air on their street.

Through those calls to the city, the Landmarks Commission learned that an extra wall on the property was demolished that was not included in the project’s original plans, the home’s east wall.

A stop work order was posted on Friday, Jan. 25th and the owner was asked to appear at a public meeting of the Landmarks Commission on Tuesday.

By Monday, Jan. 28th, the project’s architect Scott Slarsky said the city’s Inspectional Services team had come through the site and determined there was no asbestos or lead paint, and lifted the stop work order due to the environmental concerns. But that still left a stop work order related to the site’s demolition of the property’s east wall.

Property owner Ramy Rizkalla said contractors and inspectors found the east wall was bowing in, it was rotting, and there was termite damage, and a structural engineer ruled the wall was unsafe to leave on the property. Rizkalla said the decision to take down the wall was approved by the city’s Inspectional Services department. However, it is the Landmarks Commission that requested the hearing on Tuesday.

“Though they aren’t going to comment on the design of the east wall, they did want to review the rebuilding, so that’s what we’re going in for on Tuesday,” Rizkalla said.

So for now, the project is still on hold until Tuesday night’s meeting of the South End Landmarks Commision. The meeting will take place at 6:45 at Boston City Hall, room 801.

But for neighbor Hann and other neighbors who feel like they were fed some kind of bait and switch between the plans that were presented to them and the actual demolition, the damage is already done.

“We’ve lived there about 20 years and really value that house as one of two remaining wooden houses in the South End,” said Hann, who wasn’t in favor of the orignal plans to begin with because she felt certain modern elements in the design didn’t fit in with the neighborhood. The demolition of the extra wall adds insult to injury, she said, calling it “obnoxious and insulting.”

“Now it’s really heartbreaking to look at that house,” she said.

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architecture general info

Zero Worcester Square In The South End. WOW!

Zero Worcester Square is another great New Boston Ventures project going up on the corner of Worcester Square and Washington Street in the South End. David Goldman and his team have yet another success on their hands after their recent success at the Modern and the Modern 2.0.  The great team at Sprogis & Neale is marketing the project which has been selling very well.

From South End Patch

Zero Worcester Square Development ‘Ahead of Schedule’

Developer David Goldman said six of the nine units have already been sold.

Construction on the new development at the corner of Washington Street and Worcester Square, the former  Hite TV and Radio building, is “ahead of schedule,” according to the site’s developer.

New Boston Ventures, which bought the property in early 2012, said the new Zero Worcester Square condominium building was scheduled to be finished in the summer of 2013, but may be done earlier.

The six story, 10,000 square foot development will house nine units, with two at the garden level, one duplex unit, four one-bedroom units, and two penthouse units, Boston Ventures prinicipal David Goldman said. Behind the main building will be a separate townhouse.

“Construction is ahead of schedule and already six of the nine condominiums are sold,” Goldman said. “Steel is being installed right now.”

One of the building’s remaining condos is listed for $695k for a 1,100 square foot, two bedroom, one and a half bath duplex. “The living/dining/kitchen is only ten steps up from the sidewalk, and the two bedrooms are below.”

Construction on the property began in August. The large Hite Radio and TV sign was donated to the South End Historical Society.

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general info

Local Market Performs Counter to National Trends

Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast fell 6.3 percent to an annual level of 590,000 in September but are 7.3 percent above September 2011. The median price in the Northeast was $238,700, up 4.1 percent from a year ago. (see post below)

How do our hyper-local markets stack up to national and regional stats for September?

In Provincetown condo sales increased 115% month over month from 8 sales in 2011 to 22 sales in 2012! The average sale price increased by 8% to $438K, and average days on market decreased by almost half to 193 days!

In downtown Boston the condo market performed differently in September. The number of sales increased 14% month to month to 333 from 292. The average sale price for condos decreased 6% to $525K from $558K, and the median price decreased 3% to $405K. Inventory decreased by almost half to 859 properties on the market vs 1515 last year.

So locally, which for me is Boston and Provincetown, sales are way up, prices are mixed, and inventory  is way down. Quite contrary to regional and national figures.  Go figure!

One of my favorites from  AGBeat blog, Tara Steele posts her regional and national analysis below.

by  in Economy, News 

Home sales down, prices up

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), September existing-home sales dropped 1.7 percent as inventory levels continue to tighten, also reporting that the median home price jumped up, the first time since November 2005 to May 2006 that prices rose for seven months consecutively.

Existing home sales may have dipped slightly, but are up 11.0 percent from September 2011. The national median existing-home price hit $183,900, up 11.3 percent from September 2011.

Dr. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the market trend is up. “Despite occasional month-to-month setbacks, we’re experiencing a genuine recovery,” he said. “More people are attempting to buy homes than are able to qualify for mortgages, and recent price increases are not deterring buyer interest. Rather, inventory shortages are limiting sales, notably in parts of the West.”

Housing inventory and distressed sales

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage fell to a record low 3.47 percent in September from 3.60 percent in August; the rate was 4.11 percent in September 2011.

Distressed homes accounted for 24.0 percent of sales in September (13.0 percent were foreclosures and 11.0 percent were short sales), up from 22 percent in August; they were 30 percent in September 2011. Foreclosures sold for an average discount of 21 percent below market value in August, while short sales were discounted 13 percent.

Total housing inventory at the end September fell 3.3 percent, representing a 5.9-month supply at the current sales pace, down from a 6.0-month supply in August. Listed inventory is 20.0 percent below a year ago when there was an 8.1-month supply.

“The shrinkage in housing supply is supporting ongoing price growth, a pattern that could accelerate unless home builders robustly ramp up production,” Dr. Yun said.

Median time on market down 30%

The median time on market was 70 days in September, unchanged from August, but down 30.7 percent from 101 days in September 2011. Fully 32.0 percent of homes sold in September were on the market for less than a month, while 19 percent were on the market for six months or longer.

NAR President Moe Veissi said some buyers who could easily afford a mortgage can’t assume they’ll get one. “Home buyers need to be more focused on the mortgage process in the current environment where lenders and banking regulators are being risk averse,” he said, recommending that buyers shop for competitive mortgage terms.

First time buyers coming back

First-time buyers accounted for 32.0 percent of purchasers in September, compared with 31.0 percent in August; they were 32.0 percent in September 2011.

All-cash sales were at 28 percent of transactions in September, up from 27 percent in August; they were 30 percent in September 2011. Investors, who account for most cash sales, purchased 18 percent of homes in September, unchanged from August; they were 19 percent in September 2011.

Single-family home sales declined 1.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.21 million in September from 4.29 million in August, but are 10.8 percent higher than the 3.80 million-unit level in September 2011. The median existing single-family home price was $184,300 in September, up 11.4 percent from a year ago.

Existing condominium and co-op sales were unchanged at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 540,000 in September, but are 12.5 percent above the 480,000-unit pace a year ago. The median existing condo price was $181,000 in September, which is 10.0 percent higher than September 2011.

Regional performance varied

Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast fell 6.3 percent to an annual level of 590,000 in September but are 7.3 percent above September 2011. The median price in the Northeast was $238,700, up 4.1 percent from a year ago.

Existing-home sales in the Midwest slipped 0.9 percent in September to a pace of 1.10 million but are 19.6 percent higher than a year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $145,200, up 7.0 percent from September 2011.

In the South, existing-home sales increased 0.5 percent to an annual level of 1.93 million in September and are 14.2 percent above September 2011. The median price in the region was $163,600, up 13.1 percent from a year ago.

Existing-home sales in the West fell 3.4 percent to an annual pace of 1.13 million in September but are 0.9 percent above a year ago. With continuing inventory shortages in the region, the median price in the West was $246,300, which is 18.4 percent higher than September 2011.

Categories
architecture general info

Highest Condo Sale In South End!

32 Rutland St #3L, the penthouse, is not only the most expensive condominium sold in the South End this year, but it is one of the most incredible penthouses ever built in our wonderful neighborhood.  This condo was one of six units built in the recent renovation of the old “Project Place” at 32 Rutland St, which was a homeless and low income assistance program (which is a great cause and still exists).

The project was marketed beautifully by Mary Kelleher and her team at Sothebys International Realty and sold by Briggs Johnson in the South End office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. Two of the best!

                 

This particular penthouse duplex is 1 of 6 units that has about everything that you could Imagine: Direct Elevator Access, 2 Fireplaces, Enormous Master Suite, Surround Sound throughout, 3.5 bedrooms, garage parking, modern metal and wood railings, 2 decks (with 1 being 1100sf with outdoor kitchen and grill and a 6 person hot tub, with tv). The Master bath is in a class of it’s own. It boasts a whirlpool tub with a tv built in, and the master shower has the Kohler 12 jet digital shower system which is just just crazy , oh, and a TV in the shower too. It has 3,145 square feet and sold for $2.6M which comes out to $827 per square foot.

                 

So far, 5 of 6 have been sold with the largest and priciest one left which can be seen here This unit is a large lower duplex with even more bells and whistles, so check out this listing.

Compare this property to the “Best on the Beach” Waterfront property I posted about a few weeks ago. An interesting comparison as to what close to $3M buys you in the South End vs Provincetown.

 

 

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analytics

Goode and Farmer Report – Boston April 2012

April… what a month for real estate in Boston! There was the national news story about the return of multiple offers in many markets, including Boston; The unprecedented lack of inventory for sale… down 35% and more in some downtown neighborhoods, and the core strength of the market in spite of these conditions.

For all Boston neighborhoods combined condo sales were up 10% YTD over 2011 to 948 condos sold vs 863 last year. The average sales price for a condo in Boston was $563K vs $549K last year, a 3% increase. Days on market were even down 10% to 113 for many reasons including the lack of inventory.

In the Back Bay the number of condos sold was up 19% to 115 versus 97 sold in 2011. The average sold price for condos was down slightly by 2% to $1.299M. On Beacon Hill the number of condo properties sold was down 7% to 40 versus 43 in 2011. The average sales price for condos on Beacon Hill was up 8% to $836K versus $777 last year.

In Boston’s favorite neighborhood, the South End, the number of condos sold through April was up 22% compared to 101 in 2011. The average sales price for those condos sold was down a modest 3% to $659K vs $682K last year.

In what has become one of the most active markets in the city, South Boston, all the news is good. The average price of condos sold YTD was up 5% to $414K, from $393K last year. The number of condos sold was up 17% to 123 from 105 last year, and average days on market was down 30% to 102 days vs 145 days last year. South Boston is happening! And with 143 condos on the market vs 254 last year, a 43% decrease this neighborhood is bound to remain hot!

 

 

Categories
analytics trends

Stable and Consistent! – The Over $1M South End Condominium Market

The over $1,000,000 high-end market gets all the attention. We all love talking about these fantastic properties! And interestingly enough, this market for all its glamour, has remained very stable and solid over the last two years in downtown Boston and specifically in the South End.

Year-to-date – as of 12.15.11 – 60 condominiums sold for over $1M in the South End vs. 64 last year. Broken down, 44 properties selling from $1M to $1.5M closed this year vs. 48 last year. Of those properties sold for $1.5M+, 16 were sold this year – the same number as last year.

Average price per square foot in this category is approximately $720 this year and last year it was approximately $702 per square foot. Very stable. The median price for properties sold for over $1M this year is around $1,575K vs. $1,525K last year. Again, very stable.

The average days on market (DOM) for properties above $1M was 140 days this year vs. 165 days last year. DOM is an excellent marker of market demand. The fact that DOM went down 15% this year means these properties are selling a bit faster than last year. This is a great sign of market strength.

The strong and consistent performance in the luxury market in the South End is excellent news for the market in general. These sales get all the glory, but they support the entire market as it instills confidence citywide. For those looking to buy or sell in any price point in the South End these encouraging figures should add an additional level of comfort for both buyers and sellers.

What is the prognosis for the above $1M market for 2012? I will post an update in the New Year with finalized year-end figures along with my thoughts on what I think the market might look like next year. I will also post the opinions of others talking about where they think the luxury market will take us in 2012. Stay tuned.

NOTE
All sales data are from MLSPIN
All price per square foot data are from LINK