SPONSORED CONTENT: Elaine Bannigan of Pinnacle Properties has for the past 19 years put out The Pinnacle Report, a yearly, data-driven look at residential property sales in Wellesley and Weston. Here is a link to Bannigan’s full examination of the 2021 market. Excerpts that emphasize the Wellesley market are below:
The big picture, statewide
The Massachusetts single-family medan home price in 2021 rose 15% to $530,000. In 2021, the number of home sales over $3M rose 14% (more moderated growth than 202, when sales rose 33% over 2019). In contrast, the number of transactions under $500,000 declined 14% (fewer homes, rising prices). The actual total number of sales was relatively flat. As we begin 2022, the total available supply is 27% less than a year ago.
The Wellesley supply side
The total number of homes offered for sale in MLS was 378. With 329 sales, not all were absorbed by the market, demonstrating that even in these times of intense demand and a record low supply, effective marketing and accurate pricing remain essential to whether or not a home sells. Of all houses that did sell in 2021, the ‘off-market,’ or non-MLS sales represented 15% of the total (58), a slight increase from 2022. It’s important to note that the supply had been dwindling well before the start of the pandemic in early 2020. In fact, in January 2017 there were twice as many homes offered for sale as there were in January 2019 (75 and 37, respectively).
Local condos and townhomes
In Wellesley, there were 42 MLS unit sales compared to 33 in 2020. The median price of those units rose just 2%, but they sold 20% faster. Most of the luxury units at Fieldstone Way are still pending and will close in 2022. At other developments, brokers report that there have been many buyers reserving to-be-built luxury units that are optimistically planned for completion sometime late in 2022. This should be reflected by a significant rise in the median in our next report.
“Off-Market”
Builders are actively reaching out to homeowners and aggressively pursuing the increasingly elusive conforming lot. As a result, 38% of those off-market homes were sold to builders for development. Mid-to-higher priced off-market sales were more apt to involve an agent who did not offer the property to all buyers. That’s certainly beneficial for one agent and one buyer who didn’t have competition, but is not always advantageous to a home seller. Those sales prices don’t fit the definition of “fair market value” so their numbers are not included in our table. However, we did examine the sales price to assessment ratios of these sales and compared them to MLS sales. The differential was often considerable. When applied to a $2.5M home, it equates to $350k less for the off-market sale than when marketed vial MLS and its aggregator sites.
Here are the numbers:
The spring market
As every year, more homes will become available this spring, It will be a solid sellers’ market, and strong sales prices are to be expected. Those who have been considering selling in the foreseeable future might want to capitalize on it now. Pinnacle Residential Properties encourages you to find out what your home might be worth.
Pinnacle Residential Properties
555 Washington St., Wellesley, MA 02482
Elaine Bannigan
781-710-3993
