Is it a BUYER's market or a SELLER's market? And does it really even matter?

The great debate as we approach my personal favorite season (for all reasons, but including real estate) is whether we are in a buyer's market or a seller's market.  The answer, of course, is that it depends - on both where you are and what you're looking for.  But for our purposes today, I wanted to take a closer look at a particular market and offer some thoughts on it.

We're going to look in Malden (duh), Medford, Melrose, Stoneham, and Wakefield.  I consider these communities to not just be geographically aligned, but all in a similar bucket of "suburban, but with enough spice to make millennials not feel lame for moving there."  They also give us a big enough data sample to draw reasonable conclusions from.  And we're going to look no further back than three months because this timeframe defines our current market.  April is irrelevant at this point.

For single family, we are quite clearly in a seller's market.  Across our swath of 305 houses, we have a median list price of $849k and a median sale price of $901k.  That's more than 6 percent above asking, and with an average days until offer of only 12!  It's worth noting that the data is pretty consistent within these communities too (although predictably, Malden remains the most affordable and least competitive, with Melrose being the priciest and most competitive).

For condos, it's a much more balanced market - of 179 units sold, they're being listed in the mid $5s to lower $6s and selling for that.  And it's taking about 4 days longer (on average) for these properties to get offers vs their SFH counterparts.  It's worth noting, for example, that the condo market in Melrose is quite a bit softer than the other four towns.  This stands in stark contrast to how difficult it is win a bid for a house there.  Definitely something I'm noting to my Melrose buyers (and sellers), as it'd be foolish to lump these two very different animals together into one "market."

For multifamily, Malden and Medford dominate the conversation as, between the two of them, they make up 46 of the 64 multis sold.  Both markets are hot, with $900k list to $943k sale in Malden and $1.1 list to $1.143 sale - or, about 5% and 4% above ask, respectively.

But honestly, none of this really matters.  Am I kidding?  Kinda.  Like yes, of course this data is relevant but rates have come down considerably, and we're on the precipice of what is always a fast and furious fall market.  There's pent up demand amongst buyers, and sellers who have been hanging onto their precious 3% rate may finally be ready to say "it's time."  I can tell you (colloquially) that I have received more totally rando, out-of-the-blue Google calls from people ready-to-go than pretty much ever before.

So although the data is the data (i.e. it's objective), my feeling is that September is going to be fire.