Buyers Looking for Luxury See Surge in Listings

As we head into fall, more homes are hitting the market in key suburbs across Greater Boston. Just ask Rob Braunstein.

Braunstein, who is in automotive sales, wants to trade in his Needham condo for another house in town, a spacious split level with a big yard and enough space for his two teenagers to spread out.

And as he eyes the market, Braunstein is seeing something that has become a rarity in recent years, in many towns and neighborhoods across the Boston areas, a wider selection of homes to pick from.

“I keep seeing things pop up,” said Braunstein, who has set a budget in the “high $600,000s, tops.” “It is going to be fun hunting.”

Reversal of Trends

The number of homes for sale, both across the state and in and around Boston, has fallen to anemic levels in recent years, frustrating buyers and pumping up prices.

But some towns are starting to see a modest reversal of this long-standing trend as sellers, encouraged by soaring values, decide to put their homes up for sale.

Nearly 30 towns in the Boston area stand out for their hefty, double-digit increases in homes listed for sale, according to the latest market stats just released by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors for the month of August.

As for the towns seeing the most new homes hit the market, Franklin and Carlisle led the way. Both suburbs saw listings increase by more than 50 percent, followed by Hamilton (44 percent), and Needham and Walpole (40 percent).

The group also includes affluent suburbs like Arlington, Belmont, Carlisle, Hamilton, Needham and Reading, not to mention Concord, Lincoln, Westwood and Weston. There are also several middle-income towns that are seeing increases as well, including Foxborough, Franklin, Walpole, and Maynard.

Overall, new listings are up 3.2 percent during the first nine months of 2014 compared to the same period last year, MAR reports. The median price of a house in the state rose 4.6 percent, to $340,000.

“All the ingredients are there for a robust fall market,” said Peter Ruffini, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. The surge in new listings comes as an increasing number of homeowners decide to try their luck in the market after seeing prices rise.

“Sellers are saying, ‘I saw my neighbor’s house sell, maybe I can sell mine,” says Maryruth Perras, a broker in Coldwell Banker’s Needham office.

Still, it’s not exactly a buyer’s market yet. Stiff competition still exists for homes in the middle and lower end of the price scale.

Lots in Luxury

By contrast, buyers with a lot more cash to spend – and the ability to spend more than a million on a house – are likely to have more to pick from.

For buyers looking for luxury homes in the $1 million and up range, the affluent North Shore town of Hamilton might be a good bet right now, notes Deborah Hamilton of RE/MAX on the River in West Newbury. It is horse farm country, so some of the top end properties offer sprawling acreage and barns attractive for the equestrian minded, polo playing buyer.

In fact, the high end of the market is also overflowing with homes for sale in other nearby towns like West Newbury, Newbury, Boxford and Topsfield, she said.

“What I am seeing is a lot more high-end properties coming on the market,” Hamilton said. “There are so many million-dollar-plus homes for sale right now the market is really oversaturated.”

Needham has its share of homes over a million, but the town is also seeing homes hitting the market in the $600,000 to $800,000 range,

“Homes that come on the market under $800,000 are still seeing multiple offers and getting very strong prices,” said Cliff London, broker/owner of RE/MAX Home Team in Needham.

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