Under $1 million, homes shockingly scarce

The photo here, which comes from Boston.com’s real estate listings, is of a two-bedroom,

1,450-square-foot home on Lake Street in Wellesley that is priced just below $800,000, a rarity right now in this crazy spring market.

The same holds true for Needham, where 70 percent of all homes on the market during the first quarter were listed at $1 million and up.

Here’s what Pinnacle’s Elaine Bannigan told me in a column I wrote for today’s issue of Banker Tradesman.

“These numbers are disturbing,” notes Elaine Bannigan, owner of Wellesley-based Pinnacle Residential Properties, Bannigan said. “This is a trend that changes the character of these towns as young and middle class families with moderate incomes are increasingly shut out,”

It’s not just the western suburbs either. As of the last week in April, there were similar imbalances in Wincheser and Manchester north of Boston and Cohasset on the South Shore, Redfin listings show.

One partial explanation is that homes under a $1 million are getting snapped up faster, while  $1 million-plus homes take longer to sell.

But if that’s the case, this ridiculously top-heavy market should have been the norm for years, and it hasn’t been.

Back before the real estate bubble burst, about half of all homes on the market in Wellesley were under a million, while in Needham, the numbers were the opposite of what they are now, with 70 percent below $1 million and 30 percent above, according to Pinnacle.

Here’s a piece I wrote for the Globe West which delves deeper into how this trend is reshaping the western suburbs. Homes $1 million and up also make up the majority of listings in Dover, Concord, Lexington and Lincoln.

It’s yet more evidence of the dire inventory shortage that is strangling the market right now.