The Year in Review

How was the local real estate market in 2007? That depends on who you ask.

If you were selling a home, 2007 was a challenging year. Sale prices were down. Average time on market was up. And the total number of homes sold was down. For buyers, however, 2007 meant lots of properties to choose from, more affordable prices, and mortgage interest rates near historic lows.

So, if 2007 was such a "Buyer's Market", why weren't more people buying? Some buyers seem to be waiting for prices to drop even further, while others have discovered that tighter mortgage rules mean they can no longer qualify for the loan they need - either because their income or credit scores are too low. or they do not have enough saved for a down payment. (We'll post more on the mortgage mess in the coming weeks.)

No matter how you slice the data, 2007 was a down year for real estate sales. Here's a quick look at the 2007 median sale price in several local communities, and how that figure compares to 2006:

Avon - $290,500 (-7.8% from 2006)
Braintree - $367,500 (-3.3%)
Brockton - $245,00 (-10.9%)
Holbrook - $285,900 (-7.5%)
Randolph - $303,000 (-7.9%)
Weymouth - $330,000 (-1.5%)

It's also important to keep in mind that sale prices are only part of the picture. In Holbrook, for example, there were only 92 single family homes sold in 2007, down from 119 in 2006. As a result, TOTAL market volume in Holbrook fell 27% from 2006 to 2007.

(All data in this section is from the Multiple Listing Service Property Information Network (MLSPIN) and is for single-family homes only.)