New on Market?

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Welcome to your constantly updated resource for news and views on the Brookline Real Estate market. Here you will find commentary and statistics to explain the daily changes in the Brookline specific housing market.

Whether you're looking for an estate in Cottage Farm, a condo in Brookline Village or are just stopping by please feel free to read along and comment at will. If you are interested in speaking about renting an apartment, buyer representation or listing your home please feel free to contact me.

Friday, September 07, 2007

New on Market?

Posted by The Brookline Connection at 9:57 AM

It's Friday and before I go off and prepare for the Patriots' opener this weekend let's take a snapshot of what's "new." Why the question mark and the quotes? Well for condos there are 39 new properties in the MLS system for Brookline, 13 of which are below $450,000 which is first time home buyer territory here. Seven of the condos are in The Warwick (my former listing) and one is at Longwood Towers. Obviously these buildings are not "new" but they're units which haven't been owned before. Two of the other "new" condos have been on the market for a total of 592 days! That's almost 2 years!!!

So, how do 39 new condos to start September compare to previous years?

2006: 36 new condos (15 are below $450,000)
2005: 36 new condos (12 are below $450,000)
2004: 22 new condos (14 are below $450,000)

Ok, so what does that mean?

First, inventory was up in '05 and '06 because we were seeing the tail end of the "bubble" as the media likes to call it. Sellers were conditioned to take that last gasp chance at winning the real estate lottery. In '06 condos like The Warwick, Washington on the Square and Longwood Towers were all in full marketing swing. This year though we see the highest number of new condos. I thought The Globe said it was a bad time to sell.

Well, sellers aren't listening to the media when it comes time to list their property. Our number of new listings is up, but our overall inventory (see below) is down quite dramatically. This means people are out there buying. Sellers are getting the prices they need to get to keep the market moving and buyers are submitting offers.

The fears of supply out pacing demand are not being realized here in Brookline. The market is churning along quite nicely and as the fall progresses we'll see if the incredible year we've had to date continues.

For the record, I say this to all of my clients and will put it in print here: Every statistician who looks at trends will see 2004 and 2005 as statistical anomalies. They were so far off the charts that they should not be counted as valid reference points. If you remove them, 2006 was the best year ever for local real estate sales, and so far this year we've done even better. Why can't the media tell us this?