Home Buying

Record-low number of homes for sale drives prices up

In what may be a bit of good news for the real estate market, the number of homes sold in Massachusetts in October actually increased over the the same time last year, bucking a trend where fewer and fewer properties change hands.

MICHAEL DWYER/ASSOCIATED PRESS/FILE

In what may be a bit of good news for the real estate market, the number of homes sold in Massachusetts in October actually increased over the the same time last year, bucking a trend where fewer and fewer properties change hands.

Any positives from that, though, might be cancelled out by another compelling figure released Tuesday about the housing market in October: the number of properties listed for sale hit a record low for that month of the year, adding to the pressures that have resulted in ever-higher prices.

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported Tuesday that sales of both single-family homes and condominiums in October, typically a slow time of year as the fall market comes to an end, jumped around 6 percent each compared to the same month in 2016. But inventory for condos and houses were each down more than 25 percent.

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