Assessing the Lincoln Market Since 2009
Two of our favorite measures of a real estate market -- sale price per square foot and days to offer -- are helpful in assessing market health when we look for trends year over year. We were asked for data demonstrating trends the Lincoln, Massachusetts real estate market since 2009 to see the recovery since the recession. What we see when we look at all single family home sales from 2009 to today (419 as of this writing) is a huge variance in both indicators, but overall trends towards higher prices per square foot and fewer days on the market. The chart below shows the data points for every sale both for the days it took that listing to receive an offer and the sold price per square foot, with a linear trendline and a moving average (over 20). It's easy to see that while the average days to offer has decreased by more than half from 2009 to 2017, the average price per square foot has held fairly steady just under $350 since the last quarter of 2015.
