Despite limited options, Mass. home buyers inked the most deals in a decade in May
Massachusetts pending home sales hit their highest levels in May in more than a decade, with prices edging up as well.
Home sales in which purchase and sales agreements were inked – but which had not yet officially closed – shot up 18.4 percent in May compared to the same month last year, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reports. That was the best showing since May 2004.
All told, pending sales hit 7,406 in May, offering up a strong forecast for the summer months when many of these deals will close and officially be recorded as sales.
Buyers are also anteing up a bit more as they put homes under agreement, with the median price having risen 3.8 percent, to $353,000.
“This year topped even the record pending sales we had this time last year,” said 2016 MAR President Annie Blatz, branch executive at Kinlin Grover Real Estate on Cape Cod, in a press statement.
The increase in pending sales was particularly noteworthy given the actual number of homes on the market – or listings – continues its steady, now years-long swoon.
May’s results marked the 38th time in the last 39 months that pending sales have increased, according to MAR.
“It’s heartening to see, especially with the continuing problem of low inventory, that people want to live and work in Massachusetts and they’re able to find suitable homes,” Baltz said.
Limited options are not the only thing buyers have had to struggle with. The realtors group also surveyed its members on whether their clients are running into problems getting mortgages.
While 56 percent of agents polled said they saw no difference from last year, a significant number, 31 percent, said their buyers had “somewhat more difficulty.”
“Since the downturn in the market a number of years ago, access to financing has remained difficult for many qualified buyers. While most of the Realtors® who responded didn’t see the process become more difficult than a year ago, there was a significant number who did and that is concerning and something we’ll need to watch,” Blatz said.
Nor was it just pending home sales that soared in May.
Pending sales of condos rose 12 percent to nearly 2,700. The median condo price rose 3 percent to $340,000.
Still, with home values already at high levels, brokers are growing warier as they look ahead to a potential price peak.
The Realtor® Price Confidence Index fell 9.5 percent, to 72.46 on a scale of 100. While anything over 50 indicates a rising market, it is the sixth decline in the last 12 months.
“The Price Confidence Index has trended down as prices continue to hover near all-time highs,” Blatz said.
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