Local home prices slide in March
Prices for Massachusetts single-family homes plunged nearly 11 percent last month, the biggest slide since the depths of the real estate downturn in the early 1990s.
The Warren Group, in its monthly report released today, said that the number of sales dropped 32 percent in March, to 2,637 homes, as the median sales price for a single-family home declined 10.6 percent to $304,000 from $340,000 in March 2007.
"The Bay State's housing market is looking a lot like it did at the end of 1990," said Timothy Warren Jr., chief executive of the Warren Group, a Boston real estate research and publishing firm.
The last time house prices fell this much in Massachusetts was an 11 percent slide in December 1990, he said.
"It might be awhile before we pull out of the current housing slump," he added.
Condominium sales statewide also fell sharply in March, but price declines were relatively small.
There were 1,462 condo sales last month, down from 2,269 in March 2007, a 36 percent decrease.
But the median condo price fell just 1.8 percent, to $270,000, from $275,000 a year ago.
A separate report on the local housing market was also issued today by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.
While the association uses a different method to track real estate activity than the Warren Group, the reports showed mostly similar trends.
The March median selling price of a detached single family home in Massachusetts was $315,000, a drop of 8.4 percent from March 2007, the association said.
During March, the median selling price of a Massachusetts condo was $263,750, down 5.3 percent from a year ago, the realtors association said.
On a volume basis, 2,339 detached single-family homes were sold in Massachusetts during March, down 32.3 percent from a year ago, and 1,093 condos were sold statewide during March 2008, down 38 percent from March 2007, the realtors association said.
Adding to the housing slump, growing numbers of the state's homeowners are losing their homes in foreclosures by mortgage companies, including 1,167 in March alone.
"Foreclosures are still running rampant and causing a glut of homes to hit the market," Warren said.
In a statement, Massachusetts Association of Realtors president Susan M. Renfrew saw some reason for optimism in the future; with mortgage giants such as Freddie Mac relaxing loan limits for prospective home buyers, she said, "the opportunity for improvement does exist in the coming months."
For recent Globe coverage of the local housing market, click here.
(By Kimberly Blanton, Globe staff)
