BOSTON – The Massachusetts housing market slowed last month after rising in January for the first time in two years, The Warren Group reported March 20.
Sales of single-family homes dipped to 2,983, 1.4 percent fewer than in February 2006, as the median price fell to $300,000, 4.6 percent less than a year earlier.
In January, 3,305 single-family homes were sold across the Bay State, 5.1 percent more than in January 2006, though the median price was 3.4 percent less than a year earlier.
Sales of condominiums dipped to 1,717, 3.2 percent fewer than a year earlier, as the median price fell to $275,000, 4.8 percent below the price in February 2006.
The report shows “a leveling-out in the Massachusetts home market,” said Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group. Sales declined faster in 2006, he noted, so the market may be stabilizing, but difficulties in the sub-prime mortgage market could spell more trouble.
Bristol County fared less well, with 262 single-family homes sold last month, 10.9 percent fewer than in February 2006, at a median price of $285,500, a 3.5-percent decline. Eighty-one condos were sold in the county, 17.4 percent fewer than in February 2006, and the median price dropped by 5.7 percent, to $208,500.
