As you can see, sales prices for single family homes in the city came down last winter and then up in the spring. This is a very typcial pattern since buyers that have a choice in their time frame prefer not to buy a new house during the holidays or in the winter.

Prices are on a current downward trend. It will be interesting to see if the prices of homes in Somerville rebound for the fall market. You might be wondering why I said that since it is officially fall. Real estate prices become public the day the house closes, that’s when the house officially sells. However, the price was set 6 weeks to 2 months prior to that when the buyer’s offer was accepted. Because of this, there’s always a delay in real estate statistics.

Let’s compare this to what was going on 2 months ago.

Somerville Market Statistics November 2008:

Not surprising given the time of year and the current cold and snowy weather, there are less properties for sale now than there were in November.

Single family homes in Somerville are selling faster with an average Days on Market of 93.9 days. The absorption rate of 1.9 months means that if no more homes were allowed to come on the market after today, it would take less than 2 months for the market to buy up all of the homes currently for sale. The average single family home price has also risen by approxmately $2,500.

Although the average condo price has risen compared to the statistics from November, the absorption rate has also gone up meaning that the condo market is slowing down. The average Days on Market for condos in Somerville during the last 6 months is 104.8 days.

The multi family market has seen a decrease in the average price of approximately $11,000 since the fall while the absorption rate has remained steady. The average Days on Market for multi family homes in Somerville for the last 6 months is 98.5 days.

Here are some other articles about Somerville:

• November 2008 Market Update
• Cut Down Your Commute Time
• Bring the Green Line to Route 16

As you can see from the chart above, absorption rates are quite low for the city. Only the multi family market is out of equilibrium. This is due primarily to the fact that during the height of the market, so many contractors came into the city and bought up as many 2 and 3 family homes as they could. Somerville has a condo review board and the approval process slowed down the number of apartments converted to condos in the city. But these investors could make so much money selling each apartment individually that they bid up the price of multi family homes to a point where these homes no longer made financial sense to the typical multi family buyer – the first time buyer or small investor looking for rental income.

The average sale price over the last 6 months of multi family homes has come down to a much more realistic $471,296, so the “normal” multi family buyers are starting to come back to the market.