The real estate market in Melrose has slowed down, but it’s still doing much better than most of the rest of the country. Let me show you:

The Average Days on Market are also showing that sales of single family homes remain brisk while condos and multi family homes are taking longer to sell.

Average Days on Market as of February 26, 2009 (based on the last 6 months of sales)
Single Family Homes – 97 days
Condos – 149 days
Multi Family Homes – 162 days

Let’s compare this to what was going on in November:

There are 2 big changes that we see in the real estate stats:

Just like our New England weather, the real estate market is constantly changing. It will be interesting to see what spring brings!

As you can see, there are very similar numbers of properties for sale, however, there are many more single family homes under agreement than multi family homes and even fewer condos under agreement. Don’t let this disparity fool you into thinking that the condo market in the city is in trouble. Take a look at the absorption rates. Absorption rate is a way to look at the number of properties currently on the market and then using the number of recent sales, allows you to estimate how long it would take for every property currently on the market to sell if no new properties were allowed to go on the market. This figure helps you to see if the market is speeding up, slowing down or staying level. As you can see in the chart, although there are less multi family homes on the market than either single family homes or condos, the multi family market is currently the slowest of the 3 categories.

So, what do the numbers tell us is happening in the Medford, MA real estate market? They show us that the market is continuing to improve. Two months ago, the city-wide absorption rate was 5.4 months and today it is 4.7 months. Medford’s proximity to Boston, good access to public transportation (which will get even better when the MBTA Green Line comes into town) and our broad range of properties and price ranges continues to help the city weather the current economic times better than many other cities in the country. Yes, our prices have dropped from the high of the market, but the good news for sellers is properties are selling. For buyers, the good news is prices have dropped!

I know I’m a number cruncher, but whether you’re looking to sell a Medford home or buy real estate in the city, I feel it’s very important to have a good handle on exactly what’s happening in the market and where it appears to be heading.