| Mid-August is not the Greater Boston area’s best season.
The weather is variable (as it always is in New England), swinging from disgusting muggy days – it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity – to cold gray rain, back to searing hot skies and sticky nights.
Summer camps are winding down but school is not yet back in session. Boston proper is choked with tourists. Vacation destinations are overrun with beachgoers desperately seeking the last of the summer sun and fun. October’s cool days and chilly nights seem far away to those who hate the heat, but depressingly close for sun worshippers.
Though it’s natural to reflect on the year gone by and the one ahead at the end of December, the dog days of summer are a good time to take a break at mid-year and gear up for the rest of 2018.
This year boasted a record-breaking spring selling season. Statewide in Q2, the median sale price for a single-family home was $399,900, easily beating the state’s pre-recession high of $354,900 for the same time in 2007. As has been the case for the past few years since peaking in 2016, the number of homes sold dropped for the quarter to 16,652.
The condo market saw similar trends. The median sale price for the months of April, May and June this year was $380,000; the median for the linked quarter hit a record high in 2012 and has continued to climb every year since then, making impressive strides in recent years. Condo sales were up over last year at 7,374, though still well under 2005’s record of 9,955.
Late summer is the time to rest and recuperate from that hectic selling season, especially for real estate and finance professionals. (Word to the wise: don’t try to refi in any kind of hurry right now, 80 percent of the area’s loan originators are on a well-deserved vacation.)
And despite the weather, there’s also a lot to celebrate in Boston and beyond. Craft breweries are thriving in the area, and more good beer is never a bad thing. The Boston Public Health Commission has worked to incorporate wellness into the fabric of the city’s society. In celebration of its 10th anniversary and mission of inclusion, the Highland Street Foundation continued its series with 10 free things to do in Massachusetts each Friday this summer.
Those are just three examples; there’s a whole lot more do in and around the city. Developers, nonprofit, government agencies and more are engaging with residents and visitors in new and innovative ways, working to bring people together in celebration of summer and the cities.
However you choose to recuperate this summer season, we hope you get a chance to do so. Come the fall, it will be time to hustle again. Right now it’s just too hot, so take a break and get ready for another record-breaking year.
