Burnt-out Lawns and July Heat Could Not Slow Down Single-Family Pending Home Sales

Majority of Realtors® use combination of social media and traditional marketing to benefit their clients

WALTHAM, Mass. – August 10, 2016 – (RealEstateRama) — The Massachusetts Association of Realtors® (MAR) reported today that there was no slowing down in the number of accepted offers being made in July as pending home sales rose again over eight percent from last year, while condominium pending sales were also up. Prices for both property types continue to go up. The strong market was reflected in a high Realtor® Market Confidence Index, while Price Confidence was essentially flat.

July Pending Sales:

• Pending sales have been up 40 of last 41 months

• Pending sales have been up for 11 of last 12 months

“Historically, the summer tends to be a time when summer vacation and beach days take the place of home buying, but that’s not the case this year,” said 2016 MAR President Annie Blatz, branch executive at Kinlin Grover Real Estate on Cape Cod. “Even with all the heat and burnt-out lawns because of water bans, buyers were in the market putting their best offers forward and having them accepted in record numbers for July.”

REALTOR® Market and Price Confidence Indexes:

• The Realtor® Market Confidence Index was up for the 17^th straight month
• The Realtor® Price Confidence Index was down for the seventh time in 12 months
• Measured on a 100-point scale, a score of 50 is the midpoint between a “strong” (100 points) and a “weak” (0 points) market condition    

“The Realtor® Market Confidence Index was up again indicating that market activity continues to be very strong,” said Blatz. “While Realtors® feel confident about prices, the trend of the Index going down since January continued on in June; albeit less than half of one percent.”

Monthly ‘Hot Topic’ Question:
The July “Hot Topic” question asked Realtors® how much social media they use in their overall marketing plans. Of those Realtors® who responded, 65 percent reported that they use a 50-50 mix of social media marketing and traditional methods. Nearly 30 percent of Realtors® who responded said they use a majority of traditional methods—like print and radio—while another 19 percent use majority social media. Only six percent use traditional marketing methods exclusively.

“Mixing traditional marketing methods with social media is what is working for Realtors® in this changing technological world,” said Blatz. “Millennials, who make up the majority of homebuyers, especially expect businesses to be active on social media.”

About the Data Sets:

The tracking of signed purchase and sales agreements (also called “pending sales”) provide reliable information about where the real estate market is heading in coming months.

A pending sale or a sale “under agreement” happens when the buyer and seller agree on the terms of the sale of a home and have a signed purchase and sale agreement, but have yet to close and be recorded as such.  MAR is the only organization, which compiles this statewide information from Multiple Listing Services each month.

Monthly pending (or under agreement) data and closed sales data comes from the three Realtor®-affiliated Multiple Listing Services in Massachusetts. They are the Berkshire County Multiple Listing Service, Cape Cod & Islands Association of Realtors® Multiple Listing Service, Inc.; and MLS Property Information Network, Inc. The data is compiled by ShowingTime/10K and updated each month. As a result, previous data may change after the reports have been run.

The REALTOR® Index Methodology – The Massachusetts Realtor® Market Confidence Index (RMCI) and Price Confidence Index (RPCI) are based on monthly responses from a random sampling of Massachusetts Association of Realtors® members on the state of the housing market.  More specifically, the survey asks members two basic questions pertaining to the real estate business in their market area in Massachusetts.

• How would you describe the current housing market?
• What are your expectations of home prices over the next year?

In addition to these standard questions, the survey each month includes one wildcard question that changes each month and is based on an industry hot topic.

The RMCI is calculated in the following way.  Respondents indicate whether conditions are, or are expected to be “strong” (100 points), “moderate” (50 points), and “weak” (0 points).  The results are the average score for each question.  A score of 50 is the threshold between a “strong” and a “weak” condition.  Similarly, the question about home prices over the next year (Realtor® Price Confidence Index) is calculated using five categories: “Rise 0-5%” (75 points), “Rise 5%+” (100 points), “Level” (50 points), “Fall 0-5%” (25 points), and “Fall >5%” (0 points).

About the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS®:

Organized in 1924, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors® is a professional trade organization with more than 22,000+ members.  The term Realtor® is registered as the exclusive designation of members of the National Association of Realtors® who subscribe to a strict code of ethics and enjoy continuing education programs.

Editors and reporters: Please note that the term Realtor is properly spelled with an initial capital “R”, per the Associated Press Stylebook.

by Eric Berman – eberman (at) marealtor (dot) com – 781-839-5507 |