Mass. housing prices fall - again
The September median price of a single-family home in Massachusetts was $304,000, down 4.4 percent from a year ago, and September was the 17th straight month that prices have fallen on a year-to-year basis, a report out today said.
The report is from the Warren Group, a Boston-based provider of local real estate data and the publisher of Banker & Tradesman.
Because of a credit crunch, buyers are either nervous about getting a mortgage or finding it more difficult to qualify for one, the Warren Group said; as a result, the number of Massachusetts single-family homes sold in September was 3,735, an 18.7 percent drop from September 2006 and the steepest monthly decline in a year, the Warren Group said.
A second, separate report was issued today by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, which uses a different method to quantify activity in the housing market.
The realtors group said the September median price for a single-family home in Massachusetts was $340,000, a dip of only 0.3 percent from a year ago.
On a volume basis, the number of single-family homes sold in September was 3,108, a 13.7 percent decrease from a year ago, the realtors group said.
"It is definitely possible that all the reports about foreclosures, lack of credit, and the like have taken their toll, and the result is that buyers are waiting on the sideline," Doug Azarian, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, said in a statement. "However, despite the disappointing news, interest rates are still low, and for credit-worthy consumers, now is a really good time to buy."
The rapidly rising rate of foreclosures has had a big impact on the Massachusetts housing market, and, traditionally, the Warren Group has included foreclosure numbers in its calculations of sales and prices.
But in this report, the Warren Group also decided to calculate prices after foreclosure data were excluded; on that basis, the group said that the median price of a single-family home fell 0.9 percent year-to-date when compared with the same period in 2006.
When calculated by the traditional method, the median price for a Massachusetts condominium in September dropped 3 percent from September 2006 to $260,000, the Warren Group said; when foreclosure data were removed from the calculation, the median year-to-date price stayed flat at $280,000.
In September, the number of Massachusetts condos sold fell 19.5 percent from September 2006 to 1,893, the Warren Group said.
According to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, 1,384 condominiums were sold in Massachusetts in September, down 13 percent from a year ago, and the median price for a Bay State condo in September 2007 was $275,000, up 1.9 percent.
"It appears we're seeing in September the ramifications of July's credit crisis," Timothy Warren Jr., chief executive of the Warren Group, said in a statement. "We're also seeing the tightening of the mortgage market. Jumbo mortgages are becoming less common, whether because of consumer skittishness regarding mortgages that aren't backed by Fannie or Freddie, or because it's more difficult to qualify for such loans."
Timothy Warren added: "The median price data with foreclosure deeds filtered out is encouraging, as prices are staying relatively flat. But foreclosure issues in Massachusetts can't be ignored and will likely get worse before it gets better."
(Chris Reidy, Globe staff)
