Covid Impacts Persist in West ‘Burbs, Inventory Remains Historically Low in Concord, Lincoln, Sudbury

Some towns feeling the squeeze much more acutely than others, like everything else “pandemic” it’s complicated.

Back in July, we profiled the year-over-year decline in single-family inventory, and here’s the update in Concord, Lincoln, Bedford, Wayland, Lexington, and Weston. This update is as of November 10. Generally, we’d begin to see a decline in homes on the market as the holiday season approaches. This year, however, our fall inventory felt impossibly tight all fall — reminiscent more of the early spring.

Sudbury leads the pack, with 73% fewer houses on the market than this time last year! Lincoln and Concord are close behind with a reduction of 65% and 62% respectively. Wayland is down 58% and Bedford is down 55%. Lexington is down 35% but unlike the other profiled towns has had a year this low recently: 2018 had the same level of inventory. Weston is only down 13%, but that may me impacted by the increase in the median list price of the existing inventory, which is up about $1M over this time last year to about $3.3M!

What It Means for Buyers and the Future

Our buyers are having a very tough time finding a house that fits. As we look ahead, though, even if inventory increases, we anticipate prices increasing year-over-year once 2020 sales are recorded. That becomes the landscape of the comparable markets and in towns with the most dramatic decline in inventory this year (Lincoln Concord, Sudbury), we’d anticipate the greatest gains in prices when the market rebalances.