Warren Group: Mass. home sales still low after lingering winter

WHILE SINGLE-FAMILY HOME SALES fell in April in Massachusetts on a year-over-year basis, condominium sales increased, according to The Warren Group. / COURTESY THE WARREN GROUP
WHILE SINGLE-FAMILY HOME SALES fell in April in Massachusetts on a year-over-year basis, condominium sales increased, according to The Warren Group. / COURTESY THE WARREN GROUP

BOSTON – Single-family home sales in Massachusetts fell 2.3 percent to 3,427 sales in April compared with 3,508 sales during the same month last year, real estate data tracking firm The Warren Group reported Wednesday.

April represented the fifth monthly year-over-year sales decline in the last six months, and the third consecutive month of declines, but the drop was less significant than in March, when home sales in the Bay State fell 7.8 percent. Year-to-date sales through April also decreased, falling 2.4 percent with a total of 10,984 homes sold compared with 11,253 homes the previous year.

In Bristol County, year-to-date single-family home sales improved, rising 2.2 percent to 849 sales compared with 831 sales during the same period in 2013. For April alone, there were 269 single-family home sales in Bristol County, an increase of 3.5 percent over the 260 sales reported for the year before.

“The numbers that we report today are for home sales that closed in April, but the buyers were shopping and negotiating back in February, the middle of a brutal winter,” said Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group. “These numbers are not a reflection of the strength of the spring market. Nevertheless, it is a bit of a surprise that we are not seeing more forward momentum.”

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The median price for a single-family home sold in the state in April rose slightly to $315,000 from $313,000 in April 2013, an increase of sixth-tenths of a percent. The median price in the first four months of 2014 was $309,350, an increase of 5.2 percent year over year.

Bristol County’s median price for April was $248,422, which represented a 1.4 percent increase over the April 2013 price of $245,000. Year-to-date, the median home price in Bristol County dropped eight-tenths of a percent to $235,000 from $237,000.

In April, condominium sales statewide totaled 1,596, a gain of 7 percent from 1,493 a year earlier. Year-to-date condo sales posted an increase of 10.5 percent, rising to 5,018 from 4,542 during the same period in 2013.

Bristol County condo sales declined 14 percent in April to 43 from 50 in April 2013. Year-to-date condo sales through the end of the month totaled 179, compared with 143 during the same four-month period last year.

The median condo price in Massachusetts rose 10.7 percent from a year earlier in April to $310,000. The year-to-date median price of condos in the Bay State was $298,750, 15 percent greater than in the same period last year.

The median condo price in Bristol County rose 24 percent in April to $185,000, with a year-to-date increase of 13 percent to $169,000.

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

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