Morning Briefing: Mass. realtors set for active summer

Mass. realtors set for active summer… Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lawrence opt for experienced realtor… Don’t believe the spin – renters pay at least 10 per cent for laundry…

Mass. realtors set for active summer
The summer home sales season in Massachusetts has started strong according to the state’s realtors association. Pending home sales for June were 36.8 per cent higher than a year earlier at 7,316 properties. The median price also increased, by 2.8 per cent to $375,000. Condo sales volume increased by 33.4 per cent year-over-year to 2,777 units while the median price for this sector dipped 0.6 per cent to $330,000.

“The summer market is heating up. June was a very active month even with the usual end of school activities and graduation celebrations,” said 2015 MAR president Corinne Fitzgerald, broker/owner of FITZGERALD Real Estate in Greenfield. “Buyers are out there and they are making offers. Sellers who price their house correctly are benefiting from all this activity and entering into agreements shortly after they are listed.” The realtor confidence index showed a 22.83 per cent rise year-over-year although the price confidence metric was down by 0.17 per cent.
 
Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lawrence opt for experienced realtor
There are plenty of ‘celebrity’ real estate agents helping stars to buy or sell their multi-million dollar homes but it seems that some celebs prefer good old-fashioned experience. The New York Daily News profiles 75 year old agent Sharon Baum who it describes as “a throwback to an old guard of Manhattan brokers, who kept their exclusives on little cards rather than throwing them up online.” It reports that Baum was the agent of choice for singer Taylor Swift when she purchased a $20 million home recently and is now helping Swift’s friend Jennifer Lawrence to find her perfect property. 
 
Don’t believe the spin – renters pay at least 10 per cent for laundry
Renters across the US pay on average 10 per cent more for the convenience of in-unit laundry facilities. That’s according to a study by Trulia which looked at the 13 top metros and discovered that in some cities avoiding a walk to the laundromat comes with a high price. Philadelphia is the city with the highest premium; 20 per cent or around $211 extra in rent; although in cash terms LA’s 17 per cent premium means an average $325 a month more. For those who want in-unit laundry at a more affordable rate, Dallas-Fort Worth has the lowest percentage premium at 3 per cent but higher rents mean that equates to $33 a month while Seattle’s 4 per cent means an extra $29 a month, the lowest cash amount of the 13 metros.