Sherborn, Massachusetts Market Report for December 31, 2008 - A Look Behind the Numbers

As of December 31, 2008, there were 30 single family listings in Sherborn on the Multiple Listing Service (MLSPin).   Year to date sales figures show a 13.0% decline in modest sales volume, although sales prices have increased by 20.73% compared to 2007. Based on current market absorption rates (see below), the market for single family homes in Sherborn appears to be "balanced."  In other words, market supply and demand are in balance, such that it is neither a buyers' nor a sellers' market.  However, some of the inventory currently available has been sitting idle for over nine months are experiencing significant downward price pressure from interested buyers.  Also of note is that average sales price to original asking price figures for 2008 (see chart below) are skewed because of an anomaly in the way listings are reported on our MLSPin.  Many of the homes that have been in inventory for extended periods of time have been relisted with other Realtors®.  Thus the percentage of the actual original asking price, compared to final sales prices are actually much lower than what is reported by our MLSPin. Although this phenomenon is not unique to Sherborn, the low number of home sales does cause this actual statistic to be deeply skewed.  During December, 4 new single family listings were added to the MLSPin, with an average list price of $769,000. However, only one listing is "new", the other listings resulted in relisting of the property with another broker or were reactivated from being expired or cancelled.

Based on the number of active single family listings versus the number of sales during the month, there is a market absorption rate of 150 days.   That is to say, based on the volume of sales during the past month, it will take approximately 5.0 months to sell all of the single family homes currently in inventory and sitting on the Sherborn market.

The average list price for a single family home is $1,069,249.  The lowest price is $199,888 and the highest price is $8,995,000, with the largest concentration of homes (53.3%) priced in the $600,000 to $999,999 price range.  Of note, the average list price for a single family home in November 2007 was $1,412,326.

The median price is $832,000 and the average days on market are 296 days.  This compares to a median list price of $969,500 and average days on market of 310 days as of December 31, 2007.

There was 1 property that went under agreement during the month of December (December 2007- 2 properties). 6 single family homes sold during December, with the average sales price being $550,417 and the median was $490,000, with the average days on market being 152 days. Compare this to 7 properties sold during December 2007, with an average and median sales price of $733,357 and $675,000, respectively, and the average number of days on market being 201 days.

In December 2008:

3 properties experienced price changes averaging -2.46%

Sales price to original price was 86%

Sales price to (last) adjusted price was 94%