Massachusetts Home Sales, Prices Fall in August
BOSTON – Massachusetts single-family home prices last month marked their 16th consecutive year-over-year decline, while sales volume resumed its retreat, erasing July’s gains, according to a report today by The Warren Group. Condo sales and prices also declined in August, the group found.
Statewide, 5,528 single-family houses were sold last month, a 1.5 percent decline from the 5,614 sales in August 2006. In July, sales had risen 1.5 percent compared with the same month of 2006.
Year-to-date sales through the end of August totaled 36,043 or 4.7 percent less than in the first eight months of last year.
The median price of single family homes sold in the Bay State fell 4.9 percent in August to $314,000. It was the seventh this year that prices fell between 4.5 and 5.0 percent, the report said: “The exception was March, when prices dropped 1.6 percent.
“That trend has left a year-to-date price decrease as of the end of August of 4.7 percent,” from $332,000 in the first eight months of 2006 to $316,500 in the same period this year.
“Although sales numbers have fluctuated throughout the first eight months of this year, we’re seeing remarkable consistency in price changes,” Timothy Warren Jr., the company’s CEO, said in a statement. “It seems the market is reaching its natural level for the time being. That trend is likely to continue during the last four months of this year.”
Similar trends were seen last month in the condominium market, The Warren Group found.
Condo sales last month declined 2.2 percent compared with August 2006, to 3,050 units sold. Their median price was $271,887, a decline of 1.1 percent from the same month a year ago.
Year-to-date condo sales fell 4.7 percent to 20,062 units sold in the first eight months of this year, while their median price fell 2.8 percent, from $279,800 for the first three quarters of 2006 to $271,887 for the same period this year.
The Warren Group Inc. is a provider of New England real estate data and the publisher of Banker & Tradesman and other journals. www.thewarrengroup.com