Here’s How the Greater Boston Housing Market Fared in July 2023
What happened in real estate while you were sunbathing on Mayflower Beach.
Photo via Getty Images/ Peter Dazeley
Working in July means an inbox of “out of office” messages from people on vacation. What this means from a real estate perspective is people are off spending time on the Cape or in the Hamptons instead of house hunting. Thanks to all the time spent in the pool or by the grill, July saw a dip in closed sales, breaking a trend of several months of increases.
In July 2023, there were 3,768 closed sales on single-family homes, down from 4,440 in June. The same went for condos: there were 1,942 sold in June and 1,636 sold in July. Realtors attribute this shift to the season—people are vacationing instead of hitting up open houses—but some of it is the same problem that’s been plaguing buyers for months.
“The big part of (the dip) is the lack of inventory to choose from,” said Jim Major, treasurer for the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and associate broker at Lamacchia Realty, Inc. “Our selection is down almost half what we normally see from this time of year.”
The number of new home listings in the state went down in July for the second consecutive month. Major notes the increase in interest rates is also deterring people who bought in 2020 (when rates were low) from moving and buying another property that might come with a bigger mortgage.
At the same time, the median sales price for homes continued to go up to $640,000 in July and $569,000 for a condo, making things even more pricey for potential buyers.
So what’s an aspiring homeowner to do? For starters, yYou may want to cancel your Labor Day plans to take advantage of the market while everyone else is out of town.
“Don’t take your eye off the ball,” Major said. “What I’ve had success with in the past is being present during holiday weekends. A lot of people like to go away, but there may be less competition (then) … I think it is going to pick up after Labor Day as it usually does. I don’t think it’s going to be as brisk as we’ve seen in the past, but a lot of people want to…want to buy before the end of the year.”
