Spring is officially here. Boston
is expected to receive some well deserved sunshine and warm weather
this weekend, with the possibility of a couple of really nice days
next week as well.It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a little
over a week since Mother Nature pulled a practical
joke on Boston
this past April Fools’ day.
The especially rough winter didn’t exactly help out the Boston
real estate market. In fact, a couple of recently
releasedstudies suggest that
snowy-gray Boston
may have triggered a mini market rebound in vacation homes
elsewhere. I know for a fact that around the third foot of snow I
was thinking about a tropical vacation.
There has been some talk that the poor weather may have put off
some buyers from entering the market, especially since many of the
storms seemed to coincide with the end of the week, when open
houses are traditionally held. Many buyers (especially first time
homeowners) also typically like to hold out for warmer weather if
possible to make their moving experience as painless as
possible.
Gibson Sotheby’s
International Realty‘s own Frank Celeste was recently interviewed by the
Boston Herald on just this topic. The Herald argues that now that
spring is here, there’s a lot of reason to be optimistic about the
coming spring housing market.
“Buyers are feeling more secure,” Frank told the Herald during
their interview. “. . . [buyers] are making decisions much faster.
If a property is priced right and in a great location, it’s
gone.”
The data seems to back Frank up, who had one listing in Charlestown
homes for sale go under agreement within three days of hitting
the market.
Boston tends to experience a bump in home sales in the spring
and fall. This is because many people hold off on putting their
homes on the market until after the holidays (around February or
March) or until after their vacations (early fall). This leads to
an increase in inventory and sales around those times.
Due to the poor weather this winter, the spring market appears
to have compressed the start of the spring market. Many sellers
seem to have held back after the holidays due to the nearly weekly
snowstorms we endured throughout much of January and February.
There are qualified buyers out there and they are placing offers
throughout the Greater Boston area.Many potential buyers can still
expect to find conventional 30 year fixed rate mortgages under five
percent even though lenders are still behaving fairly
conservatively, according to the Wall Street
Journal.
Winter is finally over. Will the improving economy help out the
real estate sector? Only time will tell, but the outlook is
optimistic.