With this weekly update comes the much welcomed sunshine and warmth. It's very invigorating, and I know for my kids, that it has finally gotten them outside!
This week I am updating the numbers to include five towns in Metro West. Together, they tell more of the story. In all of these towns sales are brisk as are the number of new properties hitting the market. Inventory in Wellesley is building up, but still historically low compared to what is typical for this time of year. The majority of homes in Wellesley that went under contract this week were between $1.5-$2M and in some cases, they went under agreement with bidding wars. We also saw some multiple offer situations on properties south of $1M.
Usually by Memorial Day our spring real estate market starts to wind down, but this year I think the opposite may happen. This year I think it's going to start to ramp up since we were all stuck inside during what is typically the peak of the spring market.
We are beginning to host public open houses. Last week I held an open house at one of our listings. We had three groups through and all seemed happy to be out looking. With mask and gloves on and shoes removed, everyone seemed at ease. This weekend we will offer more open houses at our listings and monitor the turn out. Open houses have always been allowed under the stay at home guidelines, but now I think we all feel more comfortable doing it especially as we are in phase 1 of reopening in Massachusetts.
The buyer pool is still mostly couples/young families coming from Boston and urban areas. I have also seen a number of buyers who are downsizing, determined to follow through with that plan of selling their larger homes and moving into a smaller space. Once their homes are sold that should (hopefully) stimulate the condo market which has been sluggish up until this point.
We miss seeing the relocation buyers from out of state, because they are people who must purchase a home. For some houses, not having that segment of the market is creating a big void in their buyer pool. This is especially true for new construction properties which are typically targeted by out of town buyers who are not as location sensitive.
We are doing this. We are working hard for our clients. Buying or selling a house is a stressful process to begin with and when you add in a pandemic and a changing economy, emotions run high on all sides of the transaction.
In the end when this is behind us, I know everyone will be sitting in their new homes creating wonderful new memories. That's the bigger picture and it's my job to remind my clients of that. We have to get through the weeds to smell the flowers.
Be well! Happy Memorial Day weekend!
