Shawn Tobin and his girlfriend spent six months looking for a condo in South Boston, trudging out to hundreds of places.
"You'd see the same faces at open houses every Saturday and Sunday, like a comical death march," said Tobin, a 28-year-old who works for a tech media company. "And you'd often have to make an offer within a few hours of seeing a place."
Tobin made an offer on one condo that was $30,000 above the asking price, and found out that 12 other bidders had come in above his offer.
"Then you have buyers come in with all cash and you have no chance if you can only put 10 percent down," said Tobin. "It's frustrating."
That's how it goes looking for property in Boston these days as inventory problems continue to plague the Hub condo market. There were 586 listings in Boston as of Sept. 17 compared to 672 on the same date last year. The median asking price for available units last year was $519,000 — now it's up to $550,000.
John O'Connor of Keller Williams says the shortage of Boston condos explains high presales at luxury condo projects that won't be ready for at least another year, such as Sepia in the South End with 67 percent of 83 units sold, and 22 Liberty Wharf in the Seaport District, which has sold three-quarters of its 118 units.
"This doesn't really help the buyers much who will be entering the market in 12 to 18 months," O'Connor said. "But it tells you how low inventory is driving the market."
Also telling is the high number of sales above asking price. Last month, in nine key markets in Boston, Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville, 56 percent of the properties sold for above asking price with 11 going for more than $100,000 over list price, said David Bates, a William Raveis agent and real estate blogger.
"But there is better inventory now in many places than there was in the spring, and that provides better opportunity for buyers this fall," Bates said.
While Boston listings are down, he said available properties are up in other communities. Cambridge has 64 condos on the market compared with 39 at the same time last year.
Single-family inventory is way up this month in some communities, with 167 listings in Newton, a 25 percent increase over last year, and 98 listings in Needham, up 50 percent over last year, Bates said.
And inner-suburb cities such as Malden are seeing more inventory this fall even as the median price for single-family homes shot up to $334,000 compared to $311,000 last year.
"A lot of young professionals who can't afford Cambridge and Somerville are looking to buy in Malden, where there's two T stations that keep them close to the action," said Carla Dongo, manager of Coldwell Banker First Quality Realty in Malden.
"There's also a lot of international buyers coming in, and investors are buying multifamilies," added Joe Duggan, broker/owner of Malden's ReMax Trinity.
But Tobin was set on finding a place in South Boston, where he's rented for the past four years. He just bought an 850-square-foot condo on the same street where he rents for $410,000, but the unit has no parking or open space and he is investing $20,000 to alter the layout and do some sprucing up.
"A first-time buyer who wants to get into Southie these days has to be willing to make some compromises," he said.
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