BOSTON — The median sale prices of both single-family homes and condos hit new all-time highs in Massachusetts last month, real estate market analysts said as a group of six Beacon Hill lawmakers attempts to produce a compromise housing production-inducing bill by the end of July.
There were 4,441 single-family home sales in Massachusetts in June, according to The Warren Group , an 8.9% decrease compared to June 2023. At the same time, the median sale price increased 8.1% year-over-year to hit $665,000, a new all-time high.
"It wasn't that long ago that the prospect of the median single-family home price exceeding $600,000 seemed like a long shot, but here we are with a median price approaching $700,000," Cassidy Norton, associate publisher of The Warren Group, said. "A lack of inventory is clearly driving this record-setting appreciation. Despite these record prices, higher mortgage interest rates have actually slowed price growth — the median may have been even higher without those changes — but it has also contributed to low inventory."
The 18,451 single-family home sales in Massachusetts this year through June represents a 0.8% decrease compared to the first six months of 2023. But the year-to-date median home price has increased 9.8% compared to where it was a year ago, having climbed to $609,900, The Warren Group said.
Sales volume was down last month in every county , ranging from a 1.8% decline in Essex County to 29.2% declines in Berkshire and Franklin counties (Nantucket actually posted the largest percentage drop in total sales, 71.4%, but it represented a drop from seven sales to two sales).
Not counting Cape Cod or the islands, Middlesex County had the highest median sale price in July, $885,510. And Hampden County had the lowest median sale price in July, at $325,000. The median price was $749,900 for Barnstable County, $1.245 million on Martha's Vineyard and $2.875 million on Nantucket, The Warren Group said.
Once thought of as a more-affordable or more-accessible option in the red-hot Massachusetts housing market, condominiums followed many of the same trends as single-family homes here last month.
The Warren Group counted 1,938 condo sales in June 2024, compared to 2,324 in June 2023 — a 16.6% drop. Meanwhile, the median condo sale price was up 5.2% to $570,000 — a new all-time high for condos — last month.
"The median Massachusetts condo price may well exceed $600,000 in the coming months," Norton said.
There have been 8,954 condo sales here so far in 2024, down 4.5% from the first six months of 2023 while the median sale price of $540,000 represents a 5.9% increase from one year ago, The Warren Group said.
Home sales across Massachusetts fell to a 12-year low in 2023 and housing here is inaccessible or unaffordable for many residents. Gov. Maura Healey last year identified housing as "the No. 1 issue facing this state" and said there is a shortage of 200,000 units across the state.
A six-person conference committee began negotiating July 11 with the goal of sending a compromise housing policy and borrowing bill to the governor's desk by the time formal sessions end July 31.
A MassINC Polling Group survey released Tuesday showed that more than 70% of Bay States feel that the amount they pay each month for housing is "somewhat of a burden" (34%) or a "very big burden" (37%) on them. And housing was tied with migrants and immigration as the single largest issue facing state government (18%).
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Mass. home sale prices soar while sales plummet in June
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