Home sales, prices, fall sharply

Single-family homes sales in Massachusetts fell 19 percent in February compared to the same month last year, and prices fell 9 percent, Banker & Tradesman reported this morning. The median sales price of a single-family home was $301,000.

A total of 2,123 single-family homes sold in February, compared with 2,628 last year. It is the sixth straight monthly sales decline sales, dating to August.

Banker & Tradesman, a Warren Group publication, said condo sales fell 25 percent, and condo prices fell almost 7 percent. The median price was $256,500.

Sales of existing homes nationwide fell 24 percent in February compared to the same month last year, the National Association of Realtors said. The nicer way of looking at the numbers, highlighted by the NAR press release, is that the number of sales increased 2.9 percent over January. Most analysts, however, believe the more telling comparison is with sales volume in the same month in previous years. By that standard, this was the worst February since 1998.