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A surge in new luxury listings that hit the Greater Boston market in May tapered off in June, according to new data from Zillow, but middle-market homes are still entering the market in droves.
The number of new listings priced in the top fifth of the regional market jumped by nearly 126 percent in May on a month-over-month basis as agents worked out strategies to bring houses to market during the pandemic. However, that supply of sellers willing to part with their homes largely dried up in June, with the numbers new listings in that bracket rising only 2.8 percent. The number of new listings in the top fifth of the Greater Boston market as of June were down 11.3 percent compared to last year.
Homes in the fourth- and third-most expensive quintiles of the Greater Boston market showed continued growth in numbers of new listings in both months, rising 52.7 percent and 39.3 percent, respectively, in May and 24.4 percent and 28.5 percent, respectively, in June. Both slices of the market are still substantially below where they were in June 2019, however, with numbers of new listings in the fourth-most expensive quintile 6.7 percent below where they were last year, and the third-most expensive quintile 11.9 percent down.
While the number of all listings across the state are down substantially year-over-year, helping drive sale price increases in recent months, Zillow data shows the biggest deficit in new listings is concentrated in the cheapest slice of the market. The number of new listings in the cheapest fifth of the market were up 2.4 percent year-over-year in May after jumping 31 percent month-over-month but down 35.3 percent year-over-year in June after growing only 5.4 percent.
It’s a trend Zillow researchers said was mirrored nationally, with new listings in the cheapest quintile 29 percent below where they were in June last year, with listings in the most-expensive fifth of the market down only 9 percent year-over-year. Zillow economist Jeff Tucker laid part of the blame on the uneven impact of the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The way unemployment has hit in this recession – with more layoffs in service, retail, food, entertainment, and other jobs unable to be done remotely – could result in vastly different experiences on either end of the housing price spectrum,” Tucker said in a statement. “Millions of Americans who lost jobs or income are only able to stay in their homes right now thanks to extraordinary forbearance programs, which means they likely have to pause their plans to trade up or move to a new city. But for wealthier homeowners whose employment has remained stable and are looking to trade up, now may be an opportune time to sell and lock in a record-low mortgage rate on their dream home.”
