BOSTON – The year 2021 ended with the lowest number of single-family homes for sale in the Commonwealth ever since records have been kept, according to Advisors Living’s Fourth Quarter Suburban Market Report, issued today, and homes listed for sale at the end of the last quarter had an average listing price of more than $1 million.
Fewer than 2,600 homes were listed for sale in all of the Commonwealth, the report said – and there were relatively few homes available for purchase at the end of 2020.
“The seemingly insatiable buyer appetite was met with less than a half month’s supply of inventory at the end of December,” the Advisors Living quarterly report said.
It is such a seller’s-dominant market that, of the 54,000 home sales closed in the state during the year, the average home sold for 104 percent of its original listing price.
In the Boston area, Newton, Lexington, Wellesley, Wilmington and Framingham all had less than two weeks’ supply of homes for sale.
“Our homes provide more than shelter, they give us refuge and stability when the world seems chaotic,” said Susan Tsantes, Advisors Living’s Senior Vice President of Culture and Empowerment. “After two years of a pandemic, buyer activity in many of the suburban towns and cities near Boston has been at a record pace, and our area is very desirable.”
The report from Advisors Living, the residential sales platform associated with Boston Realty Advisors, the largest independent real estate brokerage based in Boston, covers all of 2021 and the fourth quarter of the year. It includes statewide data and closer analysis of many suburban Boston communities, with data from Advisors Living and also sources including Multiple Listing Service, Passive Investor Network, Massachusetts Association of Realtors, LINK, and Registries of Deeds public records.
Although Boston’s suburbs had record low inventories, leading to year-over-year home price increases, the city itself experienced an increase in inventory, and sales prices were consistent with those in 2020. The number of homes sold in Boston in 2021 increased by 16 percent over 2020.
“Many of the city’s urban areas attracted buyers who had been frustrated in searching for homes in the nearby suburbs,” the Advisors Living report said. “Early indications for 2022 continue to show many of the same market dynamics.”
“The strong desire for homeownership continues unabated and the drastically low number of active listings leads us to expect homes to continue selling swiftly and for greater value in the first several months of the year, as buyers compete with offers,” said Merit McIntyre, Chief Executive Officer and President of Advisors Living.