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New listings continue to slowly climb in Greater Boston, but inventory of for-sale homes and condominiums is still far below what it was last year, Zillow reports.
New listings grew 3.2 percent week-over-week for the seven days ending Aug. 1, but total inventory was still 24.2 percent below August 2019 levels, the real estate listings website said. The median list price has risen 10 percent year-over-year at the same time.
The statewide median single-family sale price increased 2.6 percent on a year-over-year basis to $440,000 in June, up from $429,000 in June 2019 – an all-time high for the month, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.
Zillow also reported that the number of pending sales, while falling 3.9 percent week-over-week, are still 13.4 percent above the same week last year, pointing to the delayed real estate market caused by the state’s coronavirus lockdown. New pending listings reached a year-over-year low during the week of April 25, at 55.2 percent below the same week in 2019.
Homes in Greater Boston are typically going under contract after nine days, Zillow said, seven days faster than last summer.
Nationally, newly pending sales remain well above last year’s level. They fell for the second week running in week-over-week numbers, but other measures continue to show a fast-moving market that favors sellers, indicating the recent dip has more to do with a lack of inventory than waning interest from potential buyers. In the rental market, renters and landlords are entering an uncertain period after some added unemployment benefits expired at the end of July.
“Record-low mortgage rates are helping fuel a brisk pace of home sales later into this summer than normal, but buyers are having to compete over fewer and fewer listings,” Zillow economist Jeff Tucker said in a statement about the national real estate market. “The flow of new listings has recovered somewhat, but not fast enough to replace all the recent sales, so inventory continues to plumb new record lows. There’s no single reason sellers have been slow to return, but some possibilities include reluctance to having strangers tour their home; concerns about difficulty getting their next home and an assumption that they couldn’t sell for a high price right now.”
