YOUR Massachusetts Real Estate Market Update for October 2024
The market is slipping… Well at least for the Single Family and Condo markets… But for how long? The lucky buyers who are buying this Fall are enjoying a market that we haven’t seen for quite some time.
But like I just said… The question is for how long this will last, because interest rates have gone down… Significantly and we are seeing increased activity in under agreements. These rate cuts really couldn’t come at a better time.
If you are wanting to hear about the Massachusetts Real Estate Market data for Single Family Homes, Condos and Multi-Family properties… Then you are in the right place. And if you are looking to sell your house in an all cash and as-is sale the We Buy Houses in Massachusetts is a great place to start!
Let’s start with Single Families
In September of 2024, we saw 3,053 Single Family homes sell for an average sales price of $777 thousand dollars.
With some slow to report sales, last month actually eked out a sales increase. As of now, our data shows that sales levels are down 3.5%, but I expect this to change as some stragglers flag some additional listings sitting around that should have been closed out in September.
The 3,053 Single Families that sold in September was 3.5% less than last year when we saw 3,162 homes sold.
We have now seen sales levels down 4 months out of the last 9 months. I know I have said this in the past, but again… This is what I expected for this year. Some months we would be ahead of the year over year and some months we would be behind.
Adding in this month’s sales levels, the year to date sales levels increases have slipped to now 1.6% higher as we have now sold 27,749 units compared to the 27,306 units at this point in 2023.
When I say the market is slipping, this is what I mean. September was our lowest year over year price increase that we have seen so far. In September we recorded a 4.4% year over year increase in Single Family property values. Last month I said that we may need to start looking for the caution flag for the single family market, it seems that we may need to start looking even harder.
With nine months down, home prices in Massachusetts are up 7.1% year over year. It’s been a great year in the Single Family market. But the pullbacks continue. We were at an 8.8% year over year appreciation rate four months ago, 8.1% three months, 7.8% increase two months ago, 7.4% last month and now 7.1% this month. Like I said… The market is slipping which may make this a great time to utilize a We Buy Houses in Massachusetts company as they sell in as-is condition and buy in cash.
Home prices aren’t going to be down for the year. So we can take that off the table.
Now onto the yearly sales comparison levels.
Our sales levels of 2,963 units put us right in the middle of the sales activity that we saw in September of 2010 and September of 2011.
As we have said many times before, sales levels aren’t great. But sales levels and housing prices are not correlated. The sales side has a lifeline being thrown to them with these decreasing interest rates. And this lifeline and the real estate market will most likely help bail out the overall economy.
As sales go up, then that will put more pressure on inventory levels which will ultimately lead to higher pricing. Buyers, I am just trying to prepare you.
So four months out of the last 9 months of year over year sales declines doesn’t sound great. But when you put it in perspective of the last 3 years… It’s really not that bad.
Because before January, we had 30 consecutive months of year over year sales declines. So sales declines of 4 out of the last 9 months is really an improvement!
And now that is 51 consecutive months of year over year home price increases. I don’t see this trend ending anytime soon.
But as I have already mentioned, we continue to see the rate of home price increases tapering off. And this makes sense with the higher inventory levels. But will this continue is the big question. Will this turn bleak and be a bit of darkness before the sun rises… And by sun rising, I mean interest rates falling and bailing out pretty much every asset class market.
Time will tell. But I don’t believe it is likely that this will dip into negative territory and would be making some strong bets that we will at least hit 5 consecutive years or 60 months of pricing gains.
But it’s all about inventory levels. So let’s take a look at inventory.
And look at that. Ending the month with 5,790 Single Family homes on the market.
Year over year, inventory levels are up 27.1%!
But the big takeaway is that these inventory levels are a four year high. And were only 206 units or 3.4% off of the inventory levels of September of 2020.
A lot has happened in a month with the year over year inventory comparison. We started the year with the second lowest inventory levels in history and are now sitting at a 4 year high. Historically speaking… Still VERY low. But there is no hiding the increasing inventory levels. It’s important to know that these numbers do not include off-market properties in situations like We Buy Houses in Massachusetts companies.
We now have 1,319 more single family homes on the market when compared to the end of September of 2024 then we did at the end of September of 2023. And 398 more houses on the market than September of 2022.
New Listings were up by a considerable amount year over year. We listed 5,150 Single Family homes in Massachusetts in September of 2024. This was an 18% increase when compared to September of 2023.
Price reductions were up year over year as well.
In September of 2024 we saw a 47.3% increase in price reductions throughout Massachusetts. There were 542 Single Family homes that did a price reduction in September.
Quick recap… So sales in the Single Family market were down by 6.2% while inventory was up by 27.1%. The number of new listings were up by 18% when compared to last year’s numbers while we saw a 47% increase in price reductions for September of 2024.
Prices continue to follow the yearly trend…
This is the part of the year where I need to get really repetitive because this is when some idiot gurus start screaming about how prices are falling. So here I go… Saying it again… Do not. I repeat. Do not get baited into headlines that say housing prices are down. Always only look at year over year data. Month over month data is crap.
The $777,000 average sales price means that home prices in Massachusetts are up 4.4% year over year and 7.1% year to date.
It’s important to know that when selling to a We Buy Houses in Massachusetts company that the entire process is to be easy and seamless. It’s a cash deal and the property is sold in as-is condition which means that there are no contingencies. You should check out the process of How We Buy Houses Massachusetts.
We saw 1,266 condos close in Massachusetts for the month of September with an average sales price of $655k thousand dollars.
Let’s start with the sales data…
Sales levels were down in the condo market as well. Sales levels were down by 10.9% year over year. The 1,266 condos sold in Massachusetts for the month of September was compared to the 1,421 units that sold in September of 2023.
Year to date we have closed on 12,345 condos compared to the 12,817 in the first nine months of 2023.
We have seen year over year sales declines for 6 out of the last 9 months in the condo market. Kind of the same story as the Single Family market… We went 25 months of year over year sales declines. So it’s kind of a good thing that we are getting a year over year positive reading every once in a while.
More of what we have become accustomed to. The 1266 sales fell pretty much right in line of the sales levels that we saw in September of 2011.
Inventory levels also eked out a four year high. The 3,187 condos on the market in Massachusetts is 25.7% higher than the inventory levels in September of 2023.
And 21 units above the September of 2021 inventory levels!
Something that I thought was kind of interesting is that the condo market inventory levels have been more of a consistent increase. The Single Family inventory gains have been more of an exponential increase.
This month we just barely broke out of the 2021 trendline that we had been stuck in for quite some time. To close out the month, we had 693 more condos on the market compared to this time in 2023, 399 more when compared to 2022 and 166 more than 2021.
The amount of new listings were up with 2,592 new condo listings hitting the market. The 388 additional new listings when compared to August of 2023 represents a 17.6% increase in new listings activity in Massachusetts for the month of September.
Meanwhile we saw an increase in the amount of condos that saw price reductions in Massachusetts in September of 2024 as there were 256 price adjustments. This is 121 units or 90.3% more than when compared to September of 2023.
As a year over year comparison… Sales were down 10.9 percent and new listings were up by 17.6% when compared to 2023. Meanwhile inventory was up by 25.7% with the number of price reductions up by 90% year over year.
It’s a hat trick for prices! 3 months of year over year declines in pricing. But I still contend that July gets a little asterisk next to its data.
The average sales price of $655k was 1.8% lower than the average sales price in September of 2023 when it was $667 thousand dollars. Again, this wouldn’t include off market deals like what happens when We Buy Houses in Massachusetts.
This is the first back to back to back year over year price declines since December of 2020.
The first quarter of the year was definitely more kind to condo owners than the third quarter of 2024.
Year to date, condo prices in Massachusetts are up by 2%. This number was 4.6% in June, 2.9% in July and 2.4% in August. The trendline isn’t a great one for condo owners in Massachusetts.
We are teetering on the line where one really bad month could sink our yearly data, but I really don’t think that is going to happen. It’s still too close to call on whether they will go down, but I am feeling rather confident that the condo market will end the year in positive territory.
And now for my very quick shameless plug. If you are thinking about selling a home and wanting to sell fast and in as-is condition for an all cash deal, then reach out as We Buy Houses in Massachusetts.
Now onto the Multi-Family market…
Another good month in the Multi-Family market. In September of 2024 we saw 435 Multi-Family units sell for an average sales price of $865k.
The 446 units sold was 4 units or a .9% decrease in the year over year sales levels for September.
This means that year over year sales levels are now up by 5.9%.
The 446 units sold puts us on par with last year.
The next year that was close to our sales levels of September of 2024 would be September of 2011 and 12 when we sold 463 and 435 multi-family properties respectively.
The decreasing interest rates are going to really help the investor market.
Inventory continues to grow in the multi-family market. There are currently 871 multi-family properties on the market which means that inventory levels are up by 26 units or 3.1% year over year.
The amount of additional inventory continues to be fairly consistent in the multi-family market. We have 57 more Multi-Family homes on the market than when compared to the end of September of 2023.To put it in perspective, this number was 60 additional units when we did last months report.
Meanwhile we listed 8% more multi-family properties than we did in 2023. We listed 824 multi-family homes in September of 2024 which is compared to the 763 Multi-Family homes in September of 2023.
Year over year, the $865 thousand dollars was 3.6 higher than the levels we recorded in September of 2023.
This wasn’t the lowest year over year appreciation rate ever, but it was close to it. The 3.59% doesn’t look great. But I am really not concerned with the multi-family market in any way shape or form.
Multi-family properties pricing is now up by 12.2% for the first 9 months of 2024. It slipped back a bit, but like I said… No worries here.
Whether you are looking to sell a house and selling for We Buy Houses Brockton or up to We Buy Houses Lowell to We Buy Houses Worcester, then know we are able to help. We cover the entire state of Massachusetts.