Home sales fall, but price drops are not as steep
(File photo: Donna McWilliam/AP)
Massachusetts housing prices continued to fall at a double-digit rate last month as foreclosure sales put downward pressure on the market, according to new data released today by Warren Group, a Boston real estate tracking firm.
The median selling price for single-family homes in May dropped 13 percent to $280,000 from $322,000 in May 2008. From January to May, the median home price slumped 15.1 percent to $264,900, compared with $312,000 in May last year. Discounting bank-owned property sales, the median home price would have been $290,000, according to Warren Group.
The latest drop comes as the sales of foreclosed properties has swelled. Bank-owned property sales made up 7.6 percent of all single-family home transactions between January and May, up from 5.2 percent during the same period last year.
Despite the fall in median prices -- May's 13 percent decline is the smallest in the last nine months.
Timothy M. Warren Jr., chief executive of Warren Group, said that despite the glimmer of good news, sales must improve significantly before prices start to go back up.
"Prices are still declining,'' Warren said, and sales volume won't increase significantly "unless the employment outlook improves dramatically and the tight mortgage lending standards are loosened.''
Instead, sales volume continued to plummet in May. There were 3,256 single-family home sales in May -- the lowest sales pace for the month in almost 20 years, Warren Group said. From January to May, single family home sales slowed 12.5 percent from the same months in 2008.
Condominium sales did not fare any better. Monthly condominium sales and median prices also declined by double digit percentages compared with a year ago.
The Massachusetts Association of Realtors also issued its monthly report on local housing sales today. To see information from that report, please click on "Full entry." Some data from "The 2009 State of the Nation's Housing Report" from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies can also be found there.
(By Jenifer McKim, Globe staff)
The Massachusetts Association of Realtors uses a different method for tracking local housing activity than the Warren Group does.
Here are some key points from the association's monthly report on the residential real estate market.
The median selling price for single-family homes in Massachusetts last month was $284,000, a decrease of 11.8 percent compared to $322,000 in May 2008, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors said, but "despite the decrease, this is the highest median price since October 2008."
"There were 2,972 detached single-family homes sold this May, a 15.3 percent decrease from the 3,510 homes sold the same time last year," the association said. "On a month-to-month basis, home sales were up 21.4 percent from 2,448 homes sold this past April."
"Realtor members are reporting that activity has continued to pick up as the spring home buying season continues,” association president Gary Rogers said in a statement. “While sales and median prices are still down from last year, the current trend of month-to-month improvements is noteworthy, especially when you combine it with the fact that consumer confidence and other economic indicators are showing some signs of improvement as well.”
The association said in a press release: "The May median price is up 12 percent from the 2009 low of $252,500 in February. On a month-to-month basis, the May median selling price was up 3.3 percent from $275,000 in April 2009. This is the third straight month of month-to-month increases."
For the month of May, the sales volume for the Massachusetts condominium market decreased 24.6 percent from 1,640 units sold in 2008 to 1,236 units sold in 2009.
"However, on a month-to-month basis, condominium sales were up 34.9 percent compared to the 916 units sold this past April," the association said. "This is the fourth straight month of month-to-month increases."
The association added: "Condominium median selling prices in May were down 6.2 percent from $282,500 in 2008 to $265,000 in 2009. This is the highest median price since August 2008. The May median price is up 30 percent from the 2009 low of $204,000 January. On a month-to-month basis, the median selling price of a condominium was up 12.3 percent from an April median of $236,000."
Yesterday Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies issued its annual assessment of the US housing market, "The 2009 State of the Nation's Housing Report."
The report's headline: "Housing duress continues despite signs of a bottom in housing sales and starts."
“Although there are some signs of improvement or at least steadiness in new construction and sales, housing starts stand near 60+ year lows, and any life in home sales is coming from distressed foreclosure sales, temporary first-time buyer tax credits, and low interest rates that moved higher in recent weeks,” Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of the Joint Center, said in a statement.
(Globe staff)
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