Small signs of recovery

“It’s one of those things giving buyers the extra nudge to get out there,’’ Gary Rogers, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, said of the federal stimulus money available for people who buy their first home this year, with Dec. 1 the deadline. “People want to take advantage before it goes away.’’

Final statistics on how many Massachusetts buyers filed for the credit will not be available until tax time next year, but Rogers, who works at RE/MAX First Realty in Waltham, identified it as the main reason for some of the modest jump in home prices his community has seen this year,

Median single-family home prices in Waltham rose to $388,000 in May, compared with $365,000 in May of last year, according to data collected by the Warren Group, which tracks the region’s real estate market. The city was one in a small group of communities statewide that saw prices rise. Waltham’s proximity to Boston, appeal to young families, and inventory of moderately priced properties were also factors, Rogers said.

Single-family homes and condomini ums priced in the $350,000 to $400,000 range “can’t get on the market fast enough,’’ said Rogers.

“We are seeing multiple offers for those kinds of properties,’’ he said. “There is a lot of pent-up demand. Some people feel confident their jobs will be OK during this economy, and they feel they have waited long enough’’ to buy a home.

In neighboring Newton, where median home prices dropped $55,000 over the past year to $695,000 in May, properties priced at $500,000 to $600,000 “are moving fast,’’ Rogers said.

In general, sellers in area communities are finally coming to terms with a market that “will not suddenly return to give them what they think they lost on paper,’’ and are pricing their homes in line with economic reality, he said.

Vincent Valvo, who monitors real estate data for the Warren Group, agrees that the tax credit is playing a significant role in the housing market.

The company’s statistics for last month have not been released, but Valvo said he expects to see small, across-the-board rises in median home prices and numbers of sales.

“It is still a tough market out there,’’ he said. “But we do hear that the stimulus money is moving some first-time buyers to get out there.’’

The trend could benefit communities like Framingham, Southborough, and Marlborough, hit harder than their more affluent neighbors by foreclosures in the past three years,.

“There will be bank-owned properties in those towns that will be bargains and probably very attractive to first-time buyers,’’ Valvo said.

Closer to Interstate 495, communities are still recovering from sharp price declines over the past few years, according to Paul Yorkis, president of Medway-based Patriot Real Estate Inc.

In Medway, looking at sales from January to May, this spring’s median single-family home price was $259,500, down from $344,000 for the same period last year.

In May alone, home sales in the town were averaging $361,250, about $20,000 less than last year’s figures for the month.

Yorkis said one reason for optimism in Medway - which he said is attractive to new buyers, especially families, for its strong schools, town services, and affordable housing market - is that he sees small pockets of new construction locally.

“It’s not by leaps and bounds, but there is still new construction, and those properties tend to be in high demand,’’ he said. “I’m feeling positive about a slow, gradual recovery.’’

Rogers, head of the state association of realtors, said he too is expecting to see home prices across the region stabilize and rise modestly over the next three to four years.

“I don’t see the lessons of this economy being lost on anyone soon,’’ he said. ’’ For the first time, some people are getting phone calls from bill collectors, and I think people are going to be much more conscious of affordability in the future and will not stretch for the biggest home they can get.’’

But the Warren Group’s Valvo sees the housing activity generated by the tax credit slowing later in the summer, and the market overall may not see a significant uptick until after the first half of next year.

During the last big real estate recession in the early 1990s, sales declined for three years and then it took six years after that to recover. The current home price drops are in their fourth year and not over yet, said Valvo.

“This seems to be a deeper and more severe situation than that was. We may be looking at 10 or 11 years to get back to where we were,’’ he said.

Erica Noonan can be reached at enoonan@globe.com