Home Buying

Mild winter gives 2016 housing market a jump-start

A relatively mild start to winter dramatically boosted home sales activity as buyers took advantage of the spring-like temps to hit open houses and make offers.

Pending sales in January were way up from a year ago, though prices remained flat. Jessica Rinaldi/Boston Globe

February 9, 2016

2 minutes to read

A relatively mild start to winter dramatically boosted home sales activity as buyers took advantage of the spring-like temps to hit open houses and make offers.

The number of pending sales – where homes have been put under agreement, but have not yet officially closed – rose nearly 40 percent in January compared to the same month a year ago, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) reports.

It was a sharp contrast with last winter’s epic arctic weather and never ending blizzards, which sent pending sales last January plummeting 16 percent while effectively burying the spring sales market under several feet of snow.

With the exception of last January, pending sales have been up every month for nearly three years now, the realtors group notes.

Even as sales shot up this January, prices remained relatively flat, edging up .1 percent to $330,000.

Pending condo sales were also up as well, rising 34 percent, with the median condo price edging down .8 percent to $309,438, MAR reports.

Increasing confidence

“Buyers were again out in force in January and were able to take advantage of the mild weather to see homes and make a high number of offers that were accepted in January,’’ said 2016 MAR President Annie Blatz, branch executive at Kinlin Grover Real Estate on Cape Cod, in a press statement.

“A still improving economy and an increase in first-time homebuyers in Massachusetts added to the buyer demand,’’ she said.

Real estate brokers are experiencing growing confidence in the overall market, though less so with the direction of prices.

MAR’s Market and Price Confidence Indexes show a 6 percent increase in market confidence, to 66.9, but pricing confidence remaining essentially flat at 73.58. The indexes are on a 100 point scale, with 50 the midpoint between a weak market (0) and a strong market, 100.

Smart homes making ripples

Meanwhile, real estate brokers are also increasingly selling homes with “smart home’’ features, according to a poll by MAR of its members.

A little below 40 percent of Realtors polled said they had listed a home with smart home features that included “thermostats, security systems and lighting that are controllable by an internet-connected device,’’ according to the survey.

A very small number, 2 percent, said most of the homes they listed had smart home features, while the majority, 58 percent, said the haven’t seen any smart home gadgets in the homes they are selling.

“These smart home devices are still relatively new to the marketplace, but are starting to increase in popularity here in Massachusetts,’’ Blatz noted. “It’s a good bet that we will see their use rise as more people see the benefits.’’