After sprinting through spring’s booming market, local agents were just about able to catch their breath this summer. But as we head into fall, many are gearing up for a new race, with most predicting even tighter inventory for the fall market.

The real estate market traditionally slows down somewhat in the summer: many buyers and sellers hit the beach, and even those who are staying at home prefer to spend their time in the backyard flipping burgers and not in the front room fluffing pillows for the next showing.

That’s been somewhat true this summer too. Online brokerage Redfin released a report last week saying that July was the third consecutive month of cool downs in the markets it covers across the country, with fewer homes being snapped up immediately after hitting the market. In April, more than a third of homes were off-market within a week of being listed, with another 21.2 percent coming off within two weeks. For July, those numbers slipped a bit, with 30 percent of homes being put under agreement after a week and another 18 percent after two weeks. In Boston, 30.5 percent of listings were under agreement in one week in July, and another 19.8 percent were under agreement in two weeks.

But even with the slight slowdown in the market, inventories stayed low through the summer, with just under two months’ worth of supply in Boston in July, according to Redfin’s calculations. And with Labor Day around the corner, agents are already fielding calls from people eager to list.

“I’m not a big franchise and even I’m already getting calls from people wanting to list for the fall. I think we’re going to see a big push from people wanting to list after Labor Day,” said Angela Harkins, broker/owner of Angela Harkins & Assoc. in Westford.

Soaring Rates

Many observers feared that the recent spike in interest rates could send buyers back to their bunkers in the last quarter of the year. Rates have soared more than a full percentage point since May, and may soon break 5 percent if the spooked bond market continues the rally.

Marybeth Muldowney, broker-owner of TradeWinds Realty Group LLC in Norwell, said she can sympathize with buyers who may be feeling the pain: She’s been considering purchasing a second home for herself the past few months.  

“I might have the same buying power, but my monthly payment – because of my indecision about this property – may have gone up by $500 over the past month. So I feel their pain,” she said.  

But she urges buyers to remember the same thing she’s been telling herself. “The interest rates are still historically low, and there are still good values out there,” she said. “I am extraordinarily busy with both buyers and sellers – and they’re serious people.”

It’s been the same story in Concord, said Amy Barrett, an agent with Barrett Sotheby’s, with the threat of higher payments helping drive buyers to seal the deal.

“It actually spurred it on. Because who knows if it’s going to continue, and a four-and-a-quarter rate is far better than a 4.75. I think we have still a surplus [of buyers] out there,” she said.

Some agents even felt the fall might actually be tighter than the spring, when it comes to inventory.

“Inventory is getting tighter. It’s really a crazy time that we’re living in with such little inventory and so much demand,” said Ken Tutunjian, manager of Coldwell Banker’s Back Bay branch. “This is traditionally the slowest time for us. We’re still seeing properties go under agreement, and properties come on the market. It’s an August like we’ve never seen.”

The fierce competition in the city markets may be wearing on some buyers, Tutunjian said, but so far his clients have yet to concede the fight – he’s currently seeing higher-than-usual rental inventory as buyers continue to stay on the hunt to purchase a place.   

“It’s tough on buyers when they’re competing and continuing to lose. But I anticipate that we will continue to have low inventory. I don’t think that it’s so much low inventory for us as it’s just being continually absorbed,” he said.  

Even on the Cape, where the last of the summer wine might be expected to mean a drop off in buyers dreaming of clambakes and beaches, inventory seems if anything set to shrink in the remainder of the year, said Paul Grover, co-broker owner of Robert Paul Properties in Osterville.

“Typically, we get a lot of inventory right after Labor Day, as people will try and get in one last summer. But we’d have been talking to them by now,” and so far that burst of fresh listings has yet to materialize, Grover said.

Meanwhile, even at the height of the summer season deals are still being struck, shrinking the pool of properties for autumn buyers. “We’re putting significant stuff under agreement, which is unusual for August. We’re doing some big sales and not getting new inventory. We may soon be in the same situation that Boston and some of the suburban markets have been” with multiple-bid and price wars, he said.   

Email: csullivan@thewarrengroup.com