Selling On Cape Cod

June Review: The main driver in the market right now is still low inventory which is currently and will continue to influence the real estate trends on Cape Cod for a while at least. As you take a look at our infographic, note that many indicators are now trending negative compared to last year. Closed sales, pending sales and inventory are all directly related in this case and reflect the dearth of salable real estate on the market. Additionally, we have been tracking

April Review: As we venture into April we can start comparing market numbers from COVID impacted months in 2020; put simply, the market now is far hotter than it was right at the start of the pandemic. As you can see in our "What's Up & What's Down?" graphic at right market activity is up in every category except for inventory and days on market. Of more interest is the trend over the past few months. April saw a significant gain in inventory for the first time since sp

March Review: The real estate market on Cape Cod continues to be exceptional. An interesting point in this month's data is that, for the fist time since June 2020, closed sales are actually down compared to the previous year. This suggests, more than anything, that inventory is so low we simply can't keep increasing the closed sales numbers we have been seeing. March 2020, the start of the pandemic, had not yet felt any significant COVID effects and inventory was 1,471 h

February Review: The Cape Cod real estate market continues into unprecedented territory driven largely by dwindling inventory. At the end of February there were 343 homes for sale in Barnstable County, which is down 77% from the same period in 2020 and continues the trend of decreasing inventory we have seen largely unbroken since the start of the pandemic in the Spring of last year. This is a shockingly low number of homes for sale and has driven the "months of inventory"

FOR PART 1 IN THIS SERIES CLICK HERE The big question is “what about 2021?” Will the strong market hold? Will prices continue to climb? Or are we in a bubble whose collapse is imminent? The short answer is, as always: “we have no idea.” But for a long answer, here are some factors we see swimming around in the crystal ball on Agnes’ desk: 1) COVID generated an incredible demand for properties on Cape Cod, driven largely by out-of-area buyers. Many of these were shopping

There are no two ways about it. 2020 was a remarkable year for the Cape Real Estate market. We started off the year in familiar territory with January and February showing roughly the same level of market activity as in recent years. But when the COVID pandemic took hold in March we saw a sudden slump in both pending sales and new listings – by the end of April new listings for single family homes were less than half of what they were in April 2019. Things started to turn

December Review: December's market performance continued the trend we have been seeing since June - massive seasonally adjusted increases in median price, closed sales, and new listings. Why? Massive seasonally adjusted decreases in inventory - December 2020 saw only 40% of the inventory of 2019. But these numbers are offset somewhat by a large increase (33%) in new listings as well - we are seeing supply come on the market in response to increased demand, leading to a 3

November Review: While 2020 is remarkable with exceptionally high median sales prices and low inventory, it is beginning to see the usual winter slow down - although this slow down still outpaces anything we have seen in the past. Median sales price in Barnstable county continues to climb and is up 33% from this time last year. Additionally, the months supply of single family homes is 1.7, which is a substantially lower than the 5-6 months in a healthy, slightly seller f

Whether you are buying, selling, or renting your home, one of the most important decisions you will make is who will represent your interests during the transaction. Those representatives should always be experienced local professionals with strong relationships in the community. I recently closed a transaction that perfectly illustrated just how important those relationships may end up being. Take a look: Three days before closing on a seller client’s home the buyer’s attorn

September Review: The Cape Cod real estate market continues its foray into uncharted waters. September saw the highest single family median sales price ever recorded in Barnstable County at $550,000. Additionally inventory remains incredibly low with only 921 homes available cape-wide. These two factors are putting incredible pressure on buyers by resulting in multiple offer scenarios and many homes being sold for over asking price, indicating the desperation for housing

August Review: We are in an unprecedented market on Cape Cod folks. Sellers are heavily favored in the current clime as we are seeing multiple offers over asking price on many properties, a norm previously only seen in super-hot markets like Boston, San Francisco and other booming urban areas. Inventory is down 51% from August last year and the lack of inventory is driving up median sales price (up 27% from last year). Despite the lack of inventory, both pending sales a

July Review: July, like June, saw a significant uptick in real estate activity on Cape Cod. Presumably buyers are seeing the benefits of the Cape lifestyle and, through demand, creating an exceptionally hot market. Closed sales and pending sales are both up significantly from this time last year leading to the dearth of inventory that is still driving the market (as well as driving increasing prices). This is a heavily favored seller's market with only 3.1 months of inventor

June Review: June led to some interesting market outcomes. Obviously much of the real estate market, and society, continues to be influenced by the reality of COVID-19. This has, however, impacted the Cape Cod market in an unusual way. According to the NAR Market Recovery Survey, 60% of urban markets are paused or slowly entering recovery. This is not what we are experiencing here on the Cape. June saw a 76% increase from 2019 in pending sales (sales that have signed contrac

May Review: The May market felt continued pressure from COVID-19 resulting in uncharacteristically low new listings, closings and inventory. With so much pressure on the supply side, median sales price increased 6.4% from this time last year. Fortunately, Governor Baker's transition into phase 2 of reopening on June 8th has made both sellers and buyers more comfortable with the transaction process so we expect to see activity pick back up in the market (in fact we have alr

April Review: April certainly was a little unusual. When the Spring market should have been in full swing much came to a grinding halt instead. Closed sales were down 22% from April 2019 and saw a decrease from March 2020, which is unusual as well. We expect the trend of low sales to continue into May since the lagging indicator of number of pending homes (those that are under contract) was down 43% from April 2019. Inventory was also low in April and was down nearly 60% f

February Review: As 2020 starts rolling into the Spring market, February brought some interesting happenings. February closings, inventory and supply of homes are all down nearly 20% compared to 2019. We did see a 15% increase in pending sales last month which may portend more closings in March. Inventory compared to January is on the rise, a trend that is indicative of the start of the Spring market. One ongoing and significant market force is the lack of inventory. This d

Buyers are looking for homes that sparkle. Some homes for sale on Cape Cod have been recently renovated and benefit from fresh paint, new floors or carpets, and updated appliances in the kitchen, bath or both. A home with newer updates is definitely more appealing to buyers (but worth it? Please see our thoughts here) and with our simple trick you too can make your home look its best without spending thousands of dollars. Ready? Vinegar, warm water, elbow grease. No kiddin

Are you interested in the health of the Cape Cod real estate market? How it compares to Massachusetts' real estate trends? We have had some time to review the market data from 2019 and have some interesting findings to report. We'll take a few key points and break them down Inventory: What is "month's supply" and who cares? Month's supply of inventory is a way of describing how much property is currently salable in the market. It tells us that, if no homes were added to t

January Review: After the holidays the January market saw an increase in new listings which was up nearly 14% from January 2019. We are hopeful this trend will continue and result in more months supply of inventory as we enter the Spring season. We also note several trends in other metrics that indicate what the Spring may look like. Days on market has remained largely unchanged since May (with a slight dip in the summer). This indicates relative balance between quick sal

December Review: The numbers are in for December 2019. When considering the fall market we see that closed sales have remained relatively consistent but new listings have not kept pace so inventory has been declining since September. Compared to December in 2018, inventory is down approximately 21% and new listings about 17%; this coupled with the 2019 fall data signals a likely dearth of available listings in the near-term. We do expect this time of year to be slow and wi