Buying & Selling: Massachusetts' Schizoid Real Estate

A headline from today's Boston Globe real estate section--"Mass. foreclosures smash record":

Last month, 2,207 foreclosure filings - or 110 every business day - were submitted in Massachusetts, more than double the number of a year ago; filings in January 2007 were up 105 percent from 1,076 filings in January 2006, according to ForeclosuresMass.com, a Framingham firm that provides online Massachusetts foreclosure data to investors, real estate agents, and lenders.

So far, so good, right? Increases in interest rates, resetting ARMs, stagnant wages, and rising expense costs are stretching people to the limit of their finances, resorting in more notices of default and foreclosure.

Now, here's another headline from the same section--"Mass. Home Sales Rise In January":

The volume of monthly Massachusetts single family home sales rose for the first time in two years in January, a hopeful sign perhaps for the slumping housing market, according to a sales report out today. There is a downside for sellers however: prices fell 3.4 percent.

I wonder how many of these sales came from foreclosed properties or government auctions? Regardless, the more inventory that comes on the market, the more prices will drop. It's harsh, yes, but that's the reality of the slump as it stands.

Posted at February 27, 2007 04:31 PM

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A headline from today's Boston Globe real estate section--"Mass. foreclosures smash record": Last month, 2,207 foreclosure filings - or 110 every business day - were submitted in Massachusetts, more than double the number of a year ago; filings in January 2007 were up 105 percent from 1,076 filings in January 2006, according to ForeclosuresMass.com, a Framingham firm that provides online Massachusetts foreclosure data to investors, real estate agents, and lenders. So far, so good, right? Increases in interest rates, resetting ARMs, stagnant wages, and rising expense costs are stretching people to the limit of their finances, resorting in more notices of default and foreclosure. Now, here's another headline from the same section--"Mass. Home Sales Rise In January": The volume of monthly Massachusetts single family home sales rose for the first time in two years in January, a hopeful sign perhaps for the slumping housing market, according to a sales report out today. There is a downside for sellers however: prices fell 3.4 percent. I wonder how many of these sales came from foreclosed properties or government auctions? Regardless, the more inventory that comes on the market, the more prices will drop. It's harsh, yes, but that's the reality of the slump as it stands.