BOSTON – Sales and prices of Massachusetts homes both fell last month compared with the same period of 2006, according to a report today by The Warren Group.
Single-family home sales fell 17.1 percent compared with October 2006, to 3,646 statewide, after falling 18.7 percent in September. The two months of double-digit declines had been preceded by two months of relative stability, as August’s 1.5-percent decrease in house sales erased July’s 1.5-percent increase.
The median price of single-family homes sold in October fell to $290,000 – a decline of 6.5 percent, the largest percentage drop so far this year – from $310,000 a year ago. It was the largest year-over-year decline since December 2006, when prices fell 8.1 percent.
In last month’s report of a September decline (READ MORE), CEO Timothy Warren Jr. had cited “consumer skittishness” over so-called jumbo mortgages not backed by Fannie Mac or Freddie Mac, as well as increased difficulty in qualifying for such loans.
Year-to-date house sales fell 7 percent to 46,797 across the state, while their median price fell 4.4 percent to $314,482.
Bay State condominium sales also plunged last month, falling 16 percent compared with a year ago to 1,874 sales statewide, The Warren Group said.
Their median sales price fell to $257,100, a 1.5-percent decline from the October 2006 median of $261,000.
Condo sales statewide fell 7 percent to 23,856 units sold from January through October, while their median price fell 2.2 percent to $270,000.
The Warren Group Inc. is a provider of New England real estate data and the publisher of Banker & Tradesman and other journals. Additional information is available at www.thewarrengroup.com.
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Everyday more Economist?s like Robert J. Shiller are expressing concern that the threat of a recession is coming, but there are plenty of other clues that we are facing unprecedented risks. Consider publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trusts ( REIT). Over the last few years most REIT?s performed extremely well. But the fundamentals are deteriorating and the trading values that took years to build could potentially be wiped out in as many months by the those nasty stock market vultures and fast buck artists commonly known as short sellers. Take Equity One (ticker: EQY) as an example of the perfect storm. Equity One is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. While Equity One?s exposure is nationwide it is based in Florida and so is a huge chunk of its portfolio. The double whammy facing Equity One is that unlike a diversified REIT it primarily invests in ?retail? real estate. Equity One disclosed in the latest supplement to it?s quarterly report that its overall vacancy rate is already over 6%, but the shocker is the fact that the rate almost doubles (to a little over 12% vacancy) when the tenants shop is less 10,000 sq ft. The real danger for Equity One is that this group of tenants represents over 70% of Equity One?s shopping center revenue. When you consider that less than 30% of Equity One?s current shopping center tenants are Anchor?s (defined as having over 10,000 sq ft.) you really get goose bumps because at least the bigger retailers have the capital reserves to weather the storm. ?And you thought only Realtors and builders had it bad.