Thursday, March 27, 2008

Dorchester Market Stats

I know I haven't posted many market stats recently, I hope this quick breakdown will tide you over.

2008 YTD sales for Dorchester- Single Families, Condos and Multi-families.

Price Range

# of Listings Sold

Ave. Days on Market

Ave. Sale Price

Ave. List Price

Sale Price, List Price Ratio

Orig. Price

Sale Price, Orig Price Ratio

Single Families

19

90

$288,507

$302,506

95

$319,879

90

Condos

57

120

$239,784

$251,362

96

$268,110

89

Multi Families

49

127

$309,656

$332,515

94

$373,699

84


 

Monday, March 24, 2008

I told you so....

Ok,
I know it's obnoxious, but when I said "Rare Opportunity" I really meant it. Two of the three units at 175 Savin Hill Ave have gone under agreement and it is expected that the last one will go under today. As I have said before, yes the market is down, but when something comes along that is priced great, in a great location, it will sell quickly and buyers better be able to move that quick or lose out.
Congratulations to the future owners of one hot property and to the seller for doing a great job of renovating and pricing.
Cheers!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Rare Opportunity! 3 Units Available

Just In Boston Properties | Just In Boston Properties | http://www.justinboston.com | 617-265-3500


175 Savin Hill Ave #1, Dorchester, MA
Over the Bridge Savin Hill! Newly renovated and off-street parking

available.
2 Bdrm Condo
offered at $289,000
Year Built Unspecified
Sq Footage 1,000
Bedrooms 2
Bathrooms 1 full, 0 partial
Floors 1
Parking Unspecified
Lot Size Unspecified
HOA/Maint $0 per month

DESCRIPTION

Rare opportunity! Extremely sought-after Savin Hill OTB with garage parking available.

Renovated condos with in-unit laundry, tastefully decorated, granite, stainless and tile. Walk to beach, T or an easy drive to 93.


see additional photos below
PROPERTY FEATURES
















Hardwood floorDishwasherRefrigerator
Stove/OvenGranite countertopStainless steel appliances
WasherDryerLaundry area - inside

COMMUNITY FEATURES




Playground


ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Seller contact info:




Just In Boston Properties
Just In Boston Properties | http://www.justinboston.com
617-265-3500
For sale by agent/broker

powered by postlets Equal Opportunity Housing
Posted: Mar 17, 2008, 10:09am PDT

Monday, March 17, 2008

Happy Evacuation Day!

Friday, March 14, 2008

The Greatest Party on Earth

This truly is one of the greatest parties on earth! It supports a great program and is more fun than a barrel of monkeys!
Hope to see you there!

Friday, March 7, 2008

New FHA loan limits

The FHA, as part of the economic stimulus package, has published their new loan limits. The limit is the highest mortgage amount that FHA will insure. FHA insured loans are easier to sell on the secondary mortgage market because they are thought to be a lower risk investment. This results in generally lower rates for these mortgages. There is quite a bit of speculation as to whether it will truly lower the rates or not. If you have some time to kill online, everyone and their brother has an opinion on what the impact will be and there is no shortage of discussion.

Click here to go to FHA website.

Oh, and these limits are set to expire by the end of the 2008 and revert back to the previous limits, unless congress makes it permanent.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Norfolk County Registry of Deeds

After some sleuthing I found it!!! The interface is not as nearly user-friendly as Suffolk County, but it works.
Enjoy!

Norfolk County Registry of Deeds Search, Click ME!

Mortgages

I get the feeling that banks are starting to look into their existing customers and appraisers a little bit more. I just completed a BPO (that's Broker Price Opinion) for a lender on a property that has not had any foreclosure orders filed on it, yet. Being the curious type I investigated. It looks like there are some hijinx involved with multiple mortgages and a sale price way above a reasonable market price. Leading one to beleive that the lender is on to them and formulating a plan.

I am hoping that banks look into these activities and press charges against those involved. These people have dessimated neighborhoods and have intensified the bubble bursting in these certain neighborhoods. There is enough blame to go around on the mortgage crisis and I hope those that were abusing the system are punished and others will be deterred from doing it in the future.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Commissions, what, how, why....

This has the potential to be a very large post, I am going to give a condensed version and hope that if one has more questions that they will contact us.

In a nutshell, the commission structure is generally set by the listing agent and the seller, prior to the property being marketed. It is clearly spelled out in their contract who gets what and at what time. Usually, the commission is paid to the agents that procure a ready and willing buyer. It used to be that these agents both worked for the seller as an agent and sub-agent. Due to recent changes in the industry and consumers' demands, in Greater Boston, the commission is paid to the listing agent and a buyer's agent. MLS allows the listing agent to advertise to the buyer's agent how much commission has been allocated to their compensation.
A buyer agent working out of contract with a buyer is entitled to only the amount stated in MLS, and usually this works out OK.

A buyer's agent with the exclusive right to represent will have a commission structure spelled out in their respective contract between the agent and buyer. This is where I get the most questions; what happens if the amount offered in MLS is less than my contract amount? Well the answer can be simple or complicated depending on how savvy your buyer's agent is. Typically, we set our minimum commission below the average MLS compensation. In the case that a property is not offering the full contracted commission, we will negotiate it into the offer. This goes for off-market sales and for-sale-by-owners (FSBO's)too. Now, in certain seller's markets, this can be more difficult and the buyer may have to pay cash at closing. But in today's buyer's market this is a very rare occurrence.

By the way the average commission being offered to buyer's agents in Dorchester is 2.5%.

Please, please, please do not take this post as gospel, but as a tidbit of information that gives the buyer and seller some more insight to how it all works. And email or call us for more info!!!!

Monday, March 3, 2008

Dot Bike

Check it out, don't have time for a full posting, but I wanted to get this on the blog before I headed out. It's great to see that Dorchester has it's own Bicycling Advocacy group! Yay!

Visit Dot Bike Today!