More homes sold in April than any month since the 2005 boom
Home sales are surging across Massachusetts, even amid signs that prices may be cooling a bit.
Sales of single-family homes posted double-digit gains this April compared to the same month in 2015, new reports by two top market trackers show.
More homes were sold in April than in any month since 2005 at the peak of the last boom, reports The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, which pegs the increase at a stunning 37 percent.
The Massachusetts Association of Realtors also reported strong gains, though at a somewhat lower, but still impressive, 26 percent.
Buyers in part are scrambling to find a home and lock in a mortgage before rates go up, noted Timothy M. Warren Jr., chief executive of The Warren Group.
“Sales are soaring,” said Warren, in a statement. “April’s percentage gain is the best of any month in four years.”
But prices have barely budged so far this year. Even after a 3.8 percent gain in April, the median price of a home in Massachusetts through the first four months of 2016 has actually fallen .3 percent, to $320,000, according to The Warren Group.
By contrast, both condo sales and prices are up.
Condo sales rose 18 percent in April and are up by nearly 24 percent so far this year. Condo prices are up 2.7 percent during the first four months of 2016, with the median sale price hitting $303,000, Warren Group stats show.
And both homes and condos are also selling markedly faster than they were last year, when the spring market got off to a sluggish start after an epic winter.
The median time on market for a single-family home sold in April fell to 109 days, a drop of 13 percent, while the median sale time for a condo fell to 76 days, a decline of 14 percent, MAR notes.
One down note is that the shortage of listings for sale – a chronic problem both in the Boston area and across the state – made its presence felt once again April.
The number of homes for sale in April fell 21 percent, to 16,382, compared to last year, while the number of condos on the market dropped 22 percent, to 4,336, according to the state Realtors’ group.
April became the 51st straight month in which the number of homes for sale across the state fell and the 64th straight month in which condo listings declined.
“Except for a few cold days, the spring buying season essentially started in January,” said 2016 MAR President Annie Blatz, branch executive at Kinlin Grover Real Estate in Brewster, in a statement. “All this early activity pushed closed sales to a new high for the month of April and prices followed.”
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