Mass. home sales in Jan. highest since 2007, prices up 12.5%

TOTAL SALES of single-family homes in Massachusetts for January totaled 2,728, a 5 percent increase over the same period in 2013 and the highest number of sales since January 2007, The Warren Group said Tuesday. / BLOOMBERG FILE PHOTO/TY WRIGHT
TOTAL SALES of single-family homes in Massachusetts for January totaled 2,728, a 5 percent increase over the same period in 2013 and the highest number of sales since January 2007, The Warren Group said Tuesday. / BLOOMBERG FILE PHOTO/TY WRIGHT

BOSTON – Sales of single-family homes in Massachusetts rose 5 percent in January compared with the same period a year earlier, reaching the highest number of sales recorded for the month since 2007, according to a report released Tuesday by The Warren Group.

A total of 2,728 single-family homes sold in Massachusetts in January, up from 2,599 sales in January 2013. In Bristol County, single-family home sales increased more dramatically, rising 9.6 percent in January to 205 sales from 187 sales the year prior.

“After ending 2013 on a mini slump for housing sales, these are impressive numbers for the middle of winter,” said Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group. “Still, low inventory continues to plague the market. The market needs more sellers to list their homes for sale in order to keep the rally in real estate moving ahead.”

The median price of a Massachusetts single-family home increased 12.5 percent to $315,000 in January, up from $280,000 a year earlier. January marked the seventh time in the past 12 months that median prices have risen by double digits, and also represented the highest median price for homes in January since 2008.

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Bristol County’s median price for January was $226,000, a decline of 3.8 percent from the January 2013 price of $235,000.

“Because we experienced a seven-year slump in the real estate market, there is pent-up demand for homes to purchase,” said Warren. “The lack of homes available to purchase is causing prices to grow at these double-digit rates. Buyers are hoping that the spring market will bring many more homes for sale and provide more choice.”

In January, condominium sales statewide totaled 1,144, a gain of 16.6 percent from 981 a year ago. Bristol County condo sales rose 45 percent in January to 48 from 33 in 2013.

The median condo price in Massachusetts rose 24 percent from a year earlier in January to $300,000, the highest January median price for condos since The Warren Group began tracking median condo price data in 1987. In January 2013, the median price for a condo was $242,000.

In Bristol County, the median condo price rose 20 percent in January to $167,500 from $140,000 in January 2013.

The Warren Group is the Boston-based publisher of Banker & Tradesman, The Commercial Record and a series of association publications.

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