BOSTON – Single-family home sales in Massachusetts fell 0.64 percent in January through March compared with the same period in 2006, The Warren Group reported today, while foreclosure petitions in the state jumped 79.8 percent compared with the first quarter last year.
Home sales in the Bay State have been falling since the third quarter of 2004, said the Boston-based Warren Group, as 10,562 homes were sold in the 2007 first quarter. The median price for single family homes also fell in the first quarter, by 3.1 percent to $310,000, the fifth consecutive quarter that the price has dropped.
“An increase in sales in January – they rose 5.8 percent – balanced out March’s decline and helped the first quarter end on a relatively flat note,” said Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group. “The declines in median prices also decreased as the quarter went on, starting at 4.8 percent in January and ending at 1.6 percent in March.
“This is a stark difference from the higher declines in sales and prices that we saw last year,” Warren added, “and is encouraging for the market.”
Mortgage lenders filed 6,395 petitions to foreclose in Massachusetts Land Court in the period, compared with 3,556 petitions in the first quarter of 2006. There were 6,376 such petitions in the fourth quarter of last year as well.
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.
