The Lamacchia Monthly Housing Report highlights home sale statistics, average sales prices, the number of homes listed and pending as well as price changes for single-families, condos, and multi-family homes in Massachusetts. For New Hampshire it presents home sale statistics and average sales prices. These factors, when compared year over year, are all indicators for predicting future trends in the market.
Highlights
- Interest rates have remained elevated and show no signs of coming down significantly. In the middle of June, we saw interest rates jump to their highest level yet – 6.28% – but they have since remained below 6%. Catch Anthony every Friday this summer on Boston 25’s Zip Trips where he discusses the current housing market from different towns in MA!
- Increased interest rates coupled with rising inflation diminishes buyer affordability and many buyers will drop out of the market to ‘wait for rates to come down’ or because their budgets can no longer accommodate the purchase of a home.
- Buyers, increasing rates should not discourage you from buying a home and staying in this market! Increased rates lessen demand (i.e., less buyers in the market) which helps with pricing, bidding wars, and availability. In fact, in late June, inventory surpassed 2021 levels evidencing that homes are not selling as quickly and are remaining on the market. Fewer homes listed will impact pending and sold data for the following months.
- For potential buyers that are currently renting, the cost of rent is on the rise nationally, so there IS a cost to waiting to entire the housing market
- Sellers, keeping the above in mind, pricing your home right will be the key to remaining competitive. Price adjustments are up 22.9% in June in MA.
- Lessening demand does not translate to cheaper housing – increasing inventory has slowed price appreciation some, but the market still needs much more supply to see a drop in average prices, so prices are expected to continue to increase as the year progresses.
Overall, it is clear that the market is shifting back to pre-pandemic levels and buyers and sellers alike need to be informed and prepared for what is to come. Anthony breaks down the market shift in detail in his most recent Market Update here.
Massachusetts Home Sales Down 12.1%
Sales are down 12.1 percent year over year with June 2022 at 9,721 over 11,065 last June. Sales are down across all categories.
- Single families: 6,959 (2021) | 6,182 (2022)
- Condominiums: 3,169 (2021) | 2,748 (2022)
- Multi-families: 937 (2021) | 791 (2022)
Average prices have continued their rise with another year over year increase of 12.6%, now at $644,569. Prices increased in every category.
- Single families: $651,299 (2021) | $724,833 (2022)
- Condominiums: $432,476 (2021) | $502,451 (2022)
- Multi-families: $625,221 (2021) | $691,259 (2022)
Homes Listed For Sale:
Given the cooling market, sellers aren’t as motivated to list evidenced by the fact that there were 8.3% fewer listings this year compared to last June 2021. Fewer listings will also impact pending sales numbers next month.
- 2022: 11,018
- 2021: 12,009
- 2020: 10,893
Pending Home Sales:
The number of homes placed under contract is down by 17.8% when compared to June 2021. This indicates that demand is cooling off and that sales next month June could also be down, especially now with rates on the rise, as contracts accepted is correlated to future closed sales.
- 2022: 8,617
- 2021: 10,481
- 2020: 11,281
Price Reductions:
Price reductions increased by 22.9% year over year. Increased rates have diminished buyer affordability, causing a big downshift in demand which means sellers need to be pricing right if they expect to sell in this cooled off market. If you are a seller who hasn’t been able to sell within a few weeks and it is being marketed properly, the price is the first thing to consider adjusting.
- 2022: 1,166
- 2021: 949
- 2020: 779
New Hampshire Home Sales Down 11.1%
Highlights:
- Increased mortgage rates and increasing inventory levels are just a few examples of how the housing market has changed and will continue to change as the year progresses. Buyers and sellers alike need to be prepared to take advantage of this cooling market.
- Increased mortgage rates and rising inflation have lessened consumer buying power and many are unable to stay in the housing market as a result. However, less buyers has also calmed the market down for motivated buyers as we are seeing less competition.
- A lessening in demand in this instance does not automatically translate to ‘cheaper’ housing. Although inventory levels are rising, they are not high enough to drive prices down, in fact, they are expected to continue their appreciation.
- Sellers, less demand means that pricing your home right will be critical to getting your home sold in this market!
Single family, condo home sales and multi-family home sales have all decreased when compared to June 2021.
- Single families: 1,753 (2021) | 1,619 (2022)
- Condominiums: 584 (2021) | 474 (2022)
- Multi-families: 190 (2021) | 153 (2022)
Prices overall have continued to increase, now up 20% to $519,718 compared to June 2021. Prices increased in every category.
- Single families: $477,167 (2021) | $547,749 (2022)
- Condominiums: $318,715 (2021) | $389,923 (2022)
- Multi-families: $377,405 (2021) | $625,216 (2022)
The market is adjusting to a pre-COVID market without artificially low mortgage rates and stimulus. We expect it to be a busy summer, but not quite as busy as the last two summers.
Data provided by Warren Group & MLSPin for MA, and by NEREN for NH then compared to the prior year.