Housing slump deepens in second quarter

The slump in Massachusetts' housing market deepened in the second quarter as sales of single-family homes dropped to their lowest level in 11 years and prices dipped, a firm that tracks real estate transactions said today.

The slowdown extended to the state's condominium market, where the number of sales for April through June fell 10.9 percent compared with a year ago, according to the Warren Group, a Boston-based publisher of regional real estate data and other financial information.

Single-family homes sales fell 11.7 percent in the second quarter to 15,857, the lowest second-quarter figure since 12,978 homes were sold from April through June in 1995. The second quarter is traditionally the second-highest sales period of the year behind the third quarter.

Massachusetts' 13-year run of double-digit percentage increases in single-family home prices ended last year. This year, prices have begun to slowly decline amid a growing glut of unsold homes and rising mortgage rates. The median price fell 2.9 percent to $340,000 in the second quarter.

"That slowdown, though, is a market correction, leading to a soft landing and not a plummet in prices," said Timothy Warren, chief executive of the Warren Group.

The slowdown has been less severe in the condo market, which posted a median price increase of 0.7 percent in the second quarter to $285,000 despite the nearly 11 percent decline in condo sales. And the second-quarter condo sales total of 9,028 was the second-highest on record for any April-June period, falling short only of last year's 10,113 condo sales.

Hampshire County posted the state's biggest percentage increase in second-quarter single-family home sales at 3.9 percent, while Barnstable (down 18.1 percent) and Essex (down 14.2 percent) posted the biggest declines.

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors is scheduled to report statewide second-quarter housing data on Aug. 15. The association's report is based on sales recorded in Realtor-affiliated Multiple Listing Services. The Warren Group draws its data from sales logged by registries of deeds -- figures that include some for-sale-by-owner and estate sale transactions not included in the association's numbers. (AP)