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Elsewhere in America, homeowners may have to wait before a buyer comes along. But not in Greater Boston.
The nation’s housing market had 34 percent more sellers compared to prospective homebuyers in April, according to an analysis by economists at listings portal and brokerage Redfin.
Aside from April 2020, when the nation’s economy ground to a halt at the outset of the pandemic, there haven’t been this few home-shoppers since at least 2013.
In the Boston area, that imbalance goes the other way: the region had 6.9 percent fewer sellers than buyers as of the end of April. Redfin’s report didn’t cover any other Massachusetts markets.
That puts it in one of only a few markets in the country that aren’t facing a big glut of sellers: only 14 of the 50 major U.S. metros – as diverse as St. Louis, Missouri and Newark, New Jersey – have more buyers than sellers.
“The balance of power in the U.S. housing market has shifted toward buyers, but a lot of sellers have yet to see or accept the writing on the wall. Many are still holding out hope that their home is the exception and will fetch top dollar,” Redfin Senior Economist Asad Khan said in a statement. “But as sellers see their homes sit longer on the market and notice fewer buyers coming through on tour, more of them will realize that the market has adjusted and reset their expectations accordingly.”
Data from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, shows the median Greater Boston single-family home price rose 5.3 percent year-over-year in April, to $800,000, while the median condominium price rose 4.4 percent to $629,000.
That’s not to say buyers haven’t been a little more thin on the ground this year.
As Banker & Tradesman reported Sunday, agents have been seeing some buyers, tired of losing offer after offer, are bowing out, while economic uncertainty tied to the Trump administration’s tariffs and its assaults on research and higher-education funding appear to be keeping others at home.
For the four-week period ending May 25, Redfin data collated from MLSs shows Greater Boston had nearly 15 percent more listings on a year-over-year basis, putting it ahead even of 2022 when the Federal Reserve made a sharp pivot and quickly raised interest rates to try and slow down inflation.
But while Greater Boston homes are generally selling about as fast as they did last year, the share of listings in the market with price cuts has been steadily rising: Redfin data puts that figure at 5.5 percent, compared to 4.2 percent this time last year and 3.8 percent at the same period in 2023.
And the median price of new listings that came on the market in the four weeks ending May 25 is up 7.68 percent year-over-year, suggesting local sellers feel like they still have a good amount of market power.
The picture in Worcester County is a bit more mixed: only a 9.47 percent increase in active listings, and a 5.1 percent increase in price drops year-on-year.
The Warren Group’s data shows the Worcester area’s median single-family sale price rose 1.1 percent in April, year-over-year, ending the month at $460,000.
