Stressed out by Greater Boston’s crazy prices? Well, you might get a little breather this fall.
With winter around the corner, sellers are slashing prices on their homes in order to cut a deal before the snow comes, new statistics released by Zillow show.
The number of Boston area homes with price cuts rose by 5.6 percent in the third quarter ending Sept. 30, compared to the same period last year.
Along with price cuts, there are also now more homes for buyers to pick from, with a 22 percent jump in the number of listings on the market in the Boston area compared to last year.
The same cool down is also happening nationally, making for a somewhat saner market for buyers who faced frenzied bidding wars during the spring and early summer, noted Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries in a press statement.
“What a difference a year makes,” Humphries said. “At this time last year, we were worrying about a number of frothy markets that looked like they could be on the edge of another housing bubble.”
Meanwhile, in more than two dozen towns, half or more of all listings have seen one or more price cuts in recent months.
These bargain towns are an eclectic mix of exclusive suburbs and middle and working class communities.
Several, in fact, have seen double-digit increases in the number of price-reduced homes. More than 62 percent of all listings on the market in Hamilton, an affluent community on Cape Ann, saw recent price cuts, a 22-percent jump over last year.
Topsfield, a more middle market town north of Boston, was right up there too, with 62 percent of homes on the market having had a price reduction, a nearly 24 percent rise over last year.
Out on the I-495 belt, 55 percent of the homes in Boxborough, a bedroom community for the tech community, saw price cuts, while Marlborough, a city just down the highway with more affordable prices, saw a 22 percent surge in discounted homes, bringing the total to more than 56 percent.
Sellers in seaside communities are slashing prices, with a total of 56 percent homes in scenic Rockport having been cut. Marblehead weighed in at 52 percent, with Duxbury on the South Shore at an even 50 percent.
Other towns where half or more of all listings are recently discounted include: Nahant (52 percent); Hingham (51 percent); Swampscott (55 percent); Norwell (56 percent); Medway (50 percent); Maynard (54 percent); Essex (54 percent); Middleboro (60 percent); Methuen (50 percent); and Georgetown (56 percent).
Overall, Greater Boston prices rose five percent over July, August, and September, to a median value of $362,700, according to Zillow, which pegs value using a mix of sale prices and assessed values.
That was a markedly slower pace than 2013, when prices rose nearly eight percent during the same time period.
“We always knew these market conditions couldn’t last, and it’s good to see us now on a more natural and sustained glide path down toward more normal market conditions,” Zillow’s Humphries said.