The results are in and experts agree – if you sell residential real estate, or anything related to it, in Greater Boston, the numbers are great.

The nationwide numbers are very strong. Distressed sales are returning to normal levels; demand exceeds supply due to constrained inventory; rents are rising twice as fast as home sales nationwide; and mortgage rates remain near historic lows, though they are widely expected to rise slightly in the near future.

Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for Realtor.com, earlier this month gave a presentation on the to the Greater Boston Real Estate Board at the Federal Reserve Bank. He cited a recent report from Moody’s indicating that consumer confidence declined this fall, but six-month purchase plans were strong, which could indicate a strong spring market. He said the winter season has the potential to be busier than usual.

“What you need to understand about the U.S. housing market is: there is no such thing as a U.S. housing market,” Smoke said. “Or a Massachusetts market, or a Greater Boston market. Real estate markets are best understood on a neighborhood by neighborhood level.”

Drilling down to the local numbers, Smoke said the market did very well in 2015; he expects residential real estate sales to increase 10 percent and prices to increase 6 percent in 2016. He’s even got the data to support it.

Unemployment is about 4 percent in Greater Boston, new construction – mostly in the form of multifamily apartment buildings – has recovered, and in Suffolk County, prices are up 15.3 percent year-over-year. One-third of the ZIP codes in Greater Boston are seeing 10 percent or more growth in prices, and the fastest-growing are in Boston, Cambridge and Newton Upper Falls.

ZIP codes in Arlington, Melrose and Medford are currently seeing the greatest demand, according to Smoke, adding that inventory across Greater Boston is slowly recovering.

“We ranked greater Boston the 10th best economy market in the country and also number 10 in the top 100 economies nationwide,” Smoke said.

The market, which includes Boston and many surrounding communities, ranks number 4 in the country for Millennials and number 1 for retiring Baby Boomers, currently the two hottest segments of the home-buying market, which is good news for residents looking to sell their homes.

What About The Buyers?

“There’s no question that Boston is increasingly becoming unaffordable, especially on the rental side of things,” Smoke said in a telephone interview after the event. “Cities have to ensure that there is affordable workforce-style housing development.”

Smoke said as the cost to live in Greater Boston continues to rise, the people who serve society most, like firefighters, police officers, nurses and teachers, have to move away from the communities they serve. He said that’s bad for the community and bad for the market.

“Places like northern California are experiencing this substantially,” Smoke said. “The only solution is to build the housing supply at the same pace you need housing to grow. Economic growth means you have to ensure housing of all types.”

Local zoning issues are a major impediment to getting affordable housing built, according to Smoke. He said in order to make it economically feasible to build affordable housing, buildings often have to exceed the densities laid out in local zoning.

However, Smoke said if land prices continue to increase as they have been, developers will have no choice but to build more higher-end housing to make profits, and affordable housing will get even more difficult to build.

“Eventually people will demand higher wages, making themselves less attractive to businesses and either the people or the businesses will vote with their feet and move somewhere else,” he said.

Balance And Demand

Sam Schneiderman,  president of the Massachusetts Association of Buyer Agents, said that the strength of the market isn’t hurting buyers – lack of inventory on the market is to blame.

“The fact that the market is moving up as fast as it is, is a problem for buyers,” Schneiderman said. “The biggest challenge is not how good the market is; it’s buyer demand, which often produces multiple offers, which pushes prices up. If you have more inventory, that balances things out, and you don’t have the prices on so many houses get bid up.”

If prices continue to climb, Schneiderman said homebuyers could get spooked.

“You do reach a point in any cycle where buyers take a deep breath and hold,” Schneiderman said.

John J. Drew, president and CEO of Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), has been with ABCD for 45 years and he’s seen the problem of Boston’s lack of affordable housing get gradually worse. During the last five years, he said, it has accelerated.

“It’s exciting that the city has changed so remarkably,” Drew said. “There are so many more millionaires and all of that is wonderful, but uncontrolled capitalism is not pretty to watch.”

Drew said the city needs to make it possible for builders to make enough profit and keep rents affordable for families with low to moderate incomes.

“It used to be that people who worked here, lived here,” Drew said. “Teachers used to all live in the city; now almost none of them live here. You lose something. We’ve lost the sense of community where we’d have a diversity of people.”

Those living in luxury housing rely on the services provided by people with lower-paying jobs – and both groups benefit from living in the same community.

“They need valet parkers, first responders, people to be part of the city structure,” Drew said. “The city has to be reflective of people who work in the city and provide city services.”