Newton had fewer single-family homes available for sale last week compared to a year ago. This three-bedroom ranch at 41 Bound Brook Road in Newton is listed for $709,000.
Home seekers heading into the spring buying and selling season will have plenty of properties to see in most communities.
But in some affluent suburbs, the number of for-sale single-family listings is down from a year earlier.
There are fewer homes on the market in towns like Brookline, Belmont, Cambridge, Newton and Hopkinton compared to last year.
Some local Realtors say the drop could be attributed to the snow and harsh winter storms, which they say has delayed the start of the spring market. Sellers typically don’t like to show homes when there’s snow and ice on the ground, they say.
More properties may become available later in the spring once weather conditions improve, according to Realtors. But real estate executive Mark H. Lippolt said well-off homeowners in some suburbs don’t feel pressure to sell and may wait until they feel they can get their desired price.
“The messaging is confusing now. They’re all talking about how it’s a great time to buy because there are a lot of choices out there. Some communities do not have the large amount of inventory that some of those promotional things will have you to believe,” said Lippolt, executive vice president and chief administrative officer for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage New England.
Hopkinton had 67 single-family home listings last week, down from 88 during the same time last year, and Acton has 60 compared to 71. In Cambridge, listings fell to 31 from 53.
Statewide, there were 26,583 single-family homes for sale as of last Thursday, up 1.4 percent from the 26,217 listings during the same time in 2007, according to information from MLS Property Information Network.
Analysts say home inventory has jumped in areas where foreclosure activity has surged. Communities like Framingham, Dorchester and Worcester – which have been flooded with foreclosures – have a glut of residential properties.
“In wealthier communities, you don’t have as many short-sales and foreclosures. You have very few compared to the lower- and middle-class communities,” said Nelson Zide, senior vice president of Whitinsville-based ERA Key Realty Services.
In Framingham, Zide estimated, there are as many 70 short-sale or bank-owned properties on the market. There were 255 single-family homes on sale in Framingham last week, up 36 percent from the 187 properties that were available a year earlier, according to MLS PIN.
Zide pointed out that more than half of the homes listed for sale, 137, are under $350,000. A dozen homes are priced for less than $200,000. “We never saw that before,” he said. “Those are either bank-owned, short sales or handyman specials.”
But there are far fewer homes in Framingham, only 16, priced between $550,000 and $750,000, he noted.
‘Drumbeat of Bad News’
The increase in listings in Framingham is a contrast to what’s happening in places like Brookline and Belmont.
In Brookline, there were 45 homes listed for sale, down 34 percent from 68 during the same day in March 2007. Prices ranged from $449,000 to $7.95 million. Newton had 153 homes available, 20 fewer than a year ago.
The low number of homes on sale in desirable parts of Brookline and Newton has sparked multiple offers for several properties, according to James Nemetz, who manages the Chestnut Hill office of Hammond Residential GMAC.
“Even in a bad market, you can have bidding wars for certain properties,” Nemetz said.
Some homes that have attracted multiple offers include a 10-room Colonial on Cypress Street in Brookline that sold for $40,000 over the list price and an “antique” cottage on Summit Street, between Newton Corner and Newtonville, that’s listed for $679,000.
Nemetz said some homeowners may be cautious about listing their homes after listening to the “drumbeat of bad news” about the market.
“Not all of them realize that what’s going on in Las Vegas, Nev., doesn’t have a lot to do with Brookline and Newton,” he said. “They think the economy stinks, the stock market is in the tank. Who is going to buy a house now? Why should we put our houses on the market?”
But Nemetz also noted the dynamics of the spring market.
“In general, it’s true that the early part of the spring market is always characterized as too many buyers not enough sellers. In the mid-spring season – end of March, first weeks of April – properties are rolling on the market at a fast pace, and then they’re also getting absorbed really fast. That’s very typical,” he said. “At the end of the spring market, when we get into June or the end of May, that’s characterized by properties still rolling onto the market but less buyer demand.”
In Belmont, there were 30 homes listed last Monday, down from 49 a year earlier. Prices ranged from $528,000 to $2.45 million.
Nancy Grignon, who has been selling homes in Belmont for 22 years, said only homeowners that have to sell are putting their properties on the market.
One of the homes she has listed for sale is for a client who is moving to Arizona because of a job change. Another client is selling her home because she’s retiring and wants to downsize.
“When the market was doing so well, everyone was kind of jumping in and putting their houses on Â… when they really didn’t have to,” said Grignon, an agent with Lawndale Realty in Belmont.
Grignon isn’t troubled by the fewer home listings. “As a Realtor, I don’t mind having less inventory because it keeps the demand up. When you have a lot of inventory, the demand goes down and buyers become complacent.”
But Lippolt has concerns about low levels of listings. “If buyers get accustomed to not finding what they want in a particular community, they’ll skip over those communities entirely,” he said.
In Lincoln, there are half as many homes listed for sale this year than 2007. Sixteen homes are on the market, ranging in price from $520,000 to as high as $6 million.
“A consumer looking in Lincoln is going to have very little to choose from, even though everybody is saying there’s much more to choose from,” he said.
