Home sales fall 24% in September

Sales of single-family homes in Massachusetts slumped 24 percent in September and prices fell 5.3 percent as buyers bargained hard to take advantage of a market that has swung in their favor.

In its monthly sales report, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors said yesterday the median price for a single-family home was $341,000 last month, down from $359,900 a year earlier. Sales were the slowest for September in a decade, and house prices, which have been flat or falling for eight months in a row, are now 9 percent below their summer 2005 peak of $375,000.

Condominium sales also slid, by 28 percent, though the median price statewide was unchanged at $270,000. That price was 6 percent below July 2005's peak price of $287,900.

After a summer of price reductions by homeowners increasingly desperate to sell, some real estate agents said buyers responded during the September start of the fall season, though the turnout was hardly overwhelming.

"It's not getting worse," said David Wluka, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and owner of a real estate firm in Sharon. During the past two weeks, he said, he has sold two houses, both in Plainville, after a late-summer drought during which he had no sales. Other agents also are reporting that buyer activity has picked up , he said.

"The brokers I'm speaking to are busy," he said. "It looks like it's flattening out, but I can't predict. "

The 5.3 percent price decline last month was less than the 6.1 percent drop in August.

Wluka said buyers, sensing an opportunity, are "negotiating hard." One of his clients looking at condos in various projects "wanted to know the selling price of every condo sold in the past two years" in each project. "I gave it to him," he said.

More dramatic price drops were reported yesterday by Warren Group, a Boston real estate publishing firm. According to Warren Group, median single-family home prices in Massachusetts declined 7.7 percent in September, and sales dropped 23.4 percent. Warren Group culls its data from closing papers filed in court, which includes data on homes that are sold without the help of real estate agents, sales which the association does not track. Condo prices fell 4.2 percent, and condo sales fell 23.3 percent, according to Warren.

"The market correction is taking hold, and we expect it to continue into 2007," Timothy Warren, chief executive of Warren Group, said in a statement.

Real estate specialists said the market can't fully rebound until the excess supply of homes is reduced, a process that could take months or years. The association's data, which are pulled from real estate agents' central databases around the state, said nearly 64,000 houses and condos were on the Massachusetts market in September, 14 percent more than a year ago.

But in the Boston area, fewer single-family homes were put on the market in September than a year ago, according to the MLS Property Information Network.

Weymouth agent Michael Clancy, with Century 21 Tullish & Clancy, which is marketing Hamilton Bay in Quincy, said he closed six condo sales in the 168-unit project in August, four in September, and seven either have closed or are scheduled to close this month. He said sales are driven by affordable prices -- $220,000 for a one-bedroom unit and $310,000 for a two-bedroom unit -- in a market in which detached homes are out of reach for many.

The single-family market remains sluggish, but he predicted it may stabilize after a summer in which sellers were forced to cut asking prices.

"They've come down so much the correction is what the market needed," Clancy said. "I don't expect much more of a [price] drop."

Kimberly Blanton can be reached at blanton@globe.com.