Middlesex County Home Sales Plummet in January After Busy December

by Rachel Musiker | 1 Comment

But the good news: winter is still nowhere in sight.

The number of single family homes (SFH) sold in Middlesex County fell by a sharp 36.2% from December to January. But don’t be alarmed! All this really means is that December was much busier than normal and a reflection of the high-volume touring and offer writing months we had in October and November.  Sales slowed down to normal again through the holiday season, which is why we saw the huge drop in sales in January.

Prediction: Barring a Huge Catastrophic Snowstorm, Sales Will Shoot Up This Spring
Here’s some more good news: in January, our agents showed 12% more homes than we did last January. “Buyers took a very short holiday this year, and due to this crazy winter with almost no snow, the buying season is picking up speed about two months earlier than it did last year,” according to Hannah Driscoll, agent on Redfin’s Boston Metro team.  A 9.7% increase in the number of homes for sale in January adds some fuel to the buyers’ fire, and because in real estate supply drives demand, this supports the notion that sales will rebound in the coming months.

For a complete picture of the local market’s most recent stats and trends, download the Redfin Market Report here: Redfin-Boston-Real-Estate-Market-Report-January-2012. Want to know how the Boston real estate market is doing compared with the rest of the country? Take a look at the Redfin Heat Index:

*Redfin Heat Index Methodology

The Redfin Heat Index (Beta) uses listings, sales, and price changes to determine the relative “heat” of a given real estate market. We set a baseline Heat Index of 75.0 at 6.0 months of supply and +5 % price change year-over-year.
Every percentage point increase in prices above the 5% baseline will increase the heat index by two points, every percentage point decrease in prices below the 5% baseline will decrease the heat index by two points.
Every one month of supply increase above the 6.0 baseline will decrease the heat index by seven points, every one month of supply decrease below the 6.0 baseline will increase the heat index by seven points.
Here’s the formula:
  • MOS = Months of Supply: End of Month Inventory / Closed Sales in the Month
  • $YOY = Year-over-year change in the median price per square foot.
  • Heat Index = ((MOS – 6.0) * 7) + (($YOY – 5%) * 2) + 75

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