the Property Monger Real Estate Blog

That post probably didn’t make much sense without these numbers, thought the copy and paste thing would work.  I assumed, and it looks like I made an ass out of me and me.

Hello all.  I figure that today it’s time to talk about the condo market in Cambridge, seeing as I should have already left the office by now, lets just jump into this one.

 As of today 6-29 there are a total of 474 condos for sale in Cambridge MA.  And in the last month 93 have sold.  That gives us just over 5 months supply. I would consider that average for most markets, but considering the Boston market has been pretty hot in the last few years, it’s pretty bad for what sellers are used to.

If you look at the last 2 months, 147 units sold. So it appears as though the market is doing a little better this month over last month, but I think that is to be expected as most of these are direct results of the spring rush that Boston tends to see.

 What’s that you say?  I think I heard

“Jon, I’d really like to see a breakdown of the price ranges in $50k incriments for the condos sold in Cambridge for the last month.  And if you could include the number of listings, average days on market, average sales price, average list price, Sales price:List price ratio, average original price, and the sales price:original price ratio, I’d really appreciate it.  Can you do that?”

Well I’m glad you asked, cause I sure as hell can and will.

NOTE $450k - $499k OP:SP  the numbers have been horribly screwed (i mean skewed), it appears a highly intelligent broker first put a property on the market for $499 instead of $499,000.  There was actually a property whose original price was $549k and it sold for $463K after only being on the market for 200 + days so the ratio should actually be in the 80’s.

So based on months supply, the numbers are backing me up in saying it’s still not a great market for sellers right now as they are overpricing their properties by over 5% when the first put them on the market.

Arrrghh!!!!  Well I find myself inspired today to rant and rave, and maybe give away some of the super secret RE agent tricks of the trade.  Today we will cover the lazy agents way to get a listing.  It is what is called “Buying a listing.”

So first let me preface this little lesson with a true story out of my daily life.  So a landlord I’ve worked with for a while decides it’s time to sell her condo.  We have a great working relationship, and she is kind enough to give me a head start, and tell me that she’s going to want to sell her condo, and that she’s going to be talking to other agents as well (which every seller should do, always interview other agents, 3 minimum).

So I get started right away on a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis - looks at recently SOLD similar properties and makes adjustments to derive a current market value).  Long story short, I tell her I don’t think it’s going to sell for more than $360,000 if she wants it to sell quick in this market, she should probably price it around $369,900 unless she is planning on doing some substantial upgrades to it. I am extreemly confident about this price.

So one of the other agents she’s interviewing, (I don’t want to name names of the brokerage or anything, but lets just say it rhymes with Boldwell Canker) talks to her with about similar properties ASKING PRICES …..

(I asked her if she wanted to ASK her property or SELL her property, don’t ever look at asking prices…. I can put a flaming bag of poop on the market and ASK $2 million for it, that doesn’t mean it’s worth it!!!)

Anyway so this Coldwell….. I mean Boldwell Canker agent, sees that other properties are asking for some good money, and tells the seller to list the property at $430,000.

So if you’re a seller, and you have one guy telling you a lower price, and another guy telling you a higher price, who are you going to list with??  Seems like a no brainer to me too. 

And that is a perfect example of Buying the Listing.  The unfortunate fact of the matter is that, this guy is going to get the listing, and let it sit there for a while, and after a while, tell this seller that she needs to drop the price.  All the while the seller is stuck with the carrying costs associated with this unit.  And I thought listing agents were supposed to be working in the sellers best interests.

My prediction is that this property will probably sit for 2-3 months before the price gets lowered to a more realistic price.  By then, the summer buyers will have already bought, it will be too late for her to rent the unit for the winter, and this property is going to sit all winter.  The seller will then get desperate, and will probably end up getting less money for the place than she would have if she listed it at $369,000.  Not to mention probably another $10,000 (minimum) out of her pocket for carrying costs. 

I will follow this and be updating it in the blog as changes occur.  Unless of course I’m wrong, in which case I will have to destroy all evidence of this entry and silence all who are reading this right now.

So sellers, when you interview 3 agents, and one of the quotes is much higher than the other two, chances are that the agent is trying to buy your listing, and is not doing you any favors.  Remember, it it seems too good to be true, it usually is.

The Spotlight Blog has yet again breached a new milestone.  We have received our first complaint!!!!!  I know it was you Mark, our reader, you broke my heart.

It turns out I’m using too much jargon.  So as requested, definition of months supply (in the form of a pre-written article by yours truly).

Buyers Market or a Sellers Market?  How to Identify What Kind of Real Estate Market You’re In
By Jon”>http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jon_Ernest”> Jon Ernest
If you’re planning on buying or selling a home in any market, it is to your advantage to know the current trends.  I’ve heard people claim that you can tell that the housing market is softening because there are 20% more homes on the market now, compared to the same time last year.  That is not necessarily true because it only looks at supply.  Certainly a rise in supply could lead to a softening market.   However, the fact of the matter is that, if at the same time there’s 100% more buyers now, compared to the same time last year, the market is hardly softening.

Economics 101 teaches that in order to find the equilibrium to determine price and quantity, we need to know supply AND demand.  Unfortunately, the amount of homes on the market now, compared to one year ago, only looks at supply.  In order to truly understand what kind of market we’re currently in, we need to know demand.   To do this, I look at “months supply.”

What is months supply?  Basically, months supply is the ratio of inventory to sales.  And what it tells us is how many months the stock of homes for sale would last, if sales continued at their current rate.

For those of us that need to see a formula:

# of homes for sale on the market

—————————————– = Months Supply

# of homes sold that month

*important note - if your data for number of homes sold is for a period other than one month, remember to take a monthly average.  Its months supply, not 2 months supply.

What do the numbers mean?

For some reference, in the ’89 US housing market (buyers market) saw around 7 months supply.   For those of us who are more familiar with more recent years, in ’01 the US average was slightly below 4 months supply.  But hot markets like Las Vegas, Boston, and parts of Florida and California should have seen below 2 months supply in recent years.

So anywhere around 4-5 months supply is roughly average.  The further your numbers stray below that, means it’s more of a sellers market.  The higher the number is, then the more the market favors the buyer.
Jon Ernest is the Principle Broker of Spotlight Realty.  A small, independently owned, full service residential real estate agency in Brookline, Massachusetts.

http://www.SpotlightRE.com”>http://www.SpotlightRE.com>http://www.spotlightre.com/pg_select.asp?pg=Buyers” target=”_blank”>Condos for sale

” target=”_blank”>Condos for salehttp://www.spotlightre.com/brookline_apartments.htm” target=”_blank”>Brookline Apartments

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jon_Ernest” target=”_new”>http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Ernest

Well, it’s official.  I had to recheck the math a couple of times to make sure this is accurate, but it looks like our reader base has increased.  According to our highly sophisticated analysis, we now have one reader!!!!!!!!  Thanks Mom. 

Just kidding, my mom wouldn’t waste her time reading this.  So since flattery will get you everywhere, and we like to cater to our audience…. this one’s for you, Mark, our reader.

Today we’re taking a look at 2 bedroom condos in Brookline Massachusetts.

As of today (6-16-06) there are 152 two bedroom condos on the market for sale in Brookline.  With prices ranging from $298k  to $2.3 million and price per square foot ranging from $365 (not including a “contractors delight”  basement with approved plans at $264 /sq ft) to $860.

As a whole, 31 condos sold in the last month, which gives us a months supply of 4.9.  Not bad but certaintly not great.  The 3 month average months supply was 5.6 which at least tells us there is some improvement in the market (for sellers/owners).

However things are still not too favorable for sellers right now, average market time is 72 days, and with an average list price of $485,019 and an average sales price of $470,790, sellers are not getting what they are asking.  * sales at 1600 Beacon were removed from the list as their asking price is without parking and sales prices are including parking spaces being sold seperately for $45k

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