Another month of home showings, bidding wars and sales is in the can. And while May’s statistics are still being tabulated, it doesn’t take a genius to guess the likely result: Another sizeable run-up in home prices.
Heading into the month, all indications were that key indicators of demand and supply were once again out of whack. Inventory, while growing modestly month-over-month in April, was nowhere near even the tight, pre-pandemic market of 2019. And mortgage interest rates continued to hover at or below 3 percent, continuing to tempt many homebuyers to rush into the market for a new house.
Record-low interest rates like these will always create a rush to buy homes – who would pass up the cheapest mortgages in U.S. history? But the frenzy they’ve set off and that frenzy’s sensitivity to jumps in interest rates shows how many buyers are relying on this strange moment in financial history to be able to afford a home in the first place.
Indeed, a recent National Association of Realtors member survey showed 60 percent of Realtors nationwide say a lack of inventory at an accessible price point was the leading cause of their clients’ inability to buy a home.
Many Massachusetts buyers before the pandemic either couldn’t afford a new home or were, in many cases, forced to pay extortionate prices to live near their jobs. And that situation will hardly be different once interest rates float up and the current mania subsides. We need more housing production to remedy this situation and reduce the burden it places on everyday workers and our region’s ability to compete with other parts of the country for talent.
Readers of this publication will be well aware the path to fixing this state of affairs runs directly through town and city halls. But many of those buildings’ current occupants either like the “paper walls” of zoning codes they’ve built around their communities or see no political advantage in supporting change. That’s where you, the very people who know the realities of the housing economy first-hand, come in.
If you look at the state of Massachusetts’ housing market with dismay, run for something.
If you are frustrated with the zoning restrictions and other hurdles that keep new housing from being built in reasonable places, run for something.
If you get fired up about ordinary people’s inability to afford a reasonable home, run for something.
And if running for office – even town meeting member – scares you, get involved in efforts to change suburbs’ anti-development laws and policies. Change will only come when you make it happen.
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