Our Strong Real Estate Market

There was quite an eye-popping statistic in last week’s Sun-Transcript in our front page story on the town budget for FY 2019. According to the article, “Real estate market growth is up, with home sales showing that 97 percent of properties sold received their asking price.”

It seems that throughout Massachusetts and in the country in general, we may be in a once-in-a-generation seller’s market in which inventory is exceptionally low and demand is exceptionally high.

In addition to the short supply of homes for sale, no doubt there are other factors influencing the real estate market, including rising mortgage rates, which are causing some people to purchase a home while rates still are in the low 4 percent range.

In addition, how the Trump-Republican tax cuts are factoring into this is unclear. The wealthy are the prime beneficiaries, which means they have more disposable income to spend on housing — but whether that is affecting the broader market, only time will tell.

Even if you are a homeowner who is not selling, it is nice to sit on your front porch and contemplate how valuable your house suddenly has become.

We recall similar real estate market booms in the mid-1980s and then again in the late 1990s during the dot-com era. But the law of gravity — and market forces — dictate that what comes up, must come down. For how long — and to what extent — the current boom will last is anyone’s guess.