Mass. pending home sales rise

WALTHAM, Mass. – The number of people agreeing to purchase homes in March shot up 40 percent compared with the prior month, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors said last week.
The association said 4,023 homes were put under contract last month, up from 2,874 in February. The increase marked the biggest jump since the Realtors started tracking pending home sales in 2008.
While pending sales increased from February to March, they were down 16.3 percent in March compared with the same month last year.
“We’ve been hearing from Realtors across the state that improving weather conditions have sparked an increase in activity and it is encouraging to see those reports come to fruition in the numbers,” association President Laurie Cadigan said. “On an annual basis, we are continuing to compare March activity against a time period in 2010 that had the availability of the expanded homebuyer tax credit and as a result pending sales were down.”
Elsewhere in the market, the number of condominiums under contract in March was up 45.4 percent from February; but March pending sales, 1,649, were down 22 percent compared with March 2010.