All Real Estate is Local…what does that mean?

All real estate is local. If you’ve ever heard that expression before you may have wondered, how local? East coast local? New England local? Massachusetts local? The answer to all those questions is NO. The local in “all real estate is local” is very local. I’m talking like city/town local and even neighborhood local. ln a town like Natick, where I live, “all real estate is local” could really describe the entire town, but in a city like Newton, which is divided up into 13 villages, local could mean neighborhoods. Real estate in Auburndale vs. Thompsonville can be very different. Framingham, for instance has areas that I would consider urban, but also areas that are quite rural. Look at the city of Boston. You have Beacon Hill, Dorchester, Brighton, Mattapan…all of which are very different, yet are part of the same city. Real estate in each of those communities vary greatly making it almost immpossible to clump into one “market.”

To complicate things more, within those markets, you have condos, single families, apartments etc. Condos could be experiencing a boom in Dorchester while single family homes are stagnent and vice versa. So, while one seller or buyer is telling you the market is slumping or really hot in their town or neighborhood, that doesn’t mean the same is happening elsewhere.

So how do you know if your market is experiencing an uptick or downturn? How do you know if the condo market is uber competitive in one town while not so hot in another? Simple – talk to a real estate agent. Their job is to be an expert in the area they service and provide real time data as well as anecdotal evidence of the health of the market. If you’re beginning your search or thinking of selling, find an agent you know, like, and trust and begin the conversation and don’t listen to your neighbor who bought a house in the last century to tell you the health of the market!