As record-high prices and a dwindling inventory continue to work against prospective homebuyers, single-family home sales in Massachusetts were down more than 7 percent from July 2020 and about 1.5 percent from 2019, The Warren Group said Tuesday.
The analysts at The Warren Group were not surprised by the year-over-year decline in home sales. In fact, the group has been forecasting “declining sales and inflated prices” for months based on the relative scarcity of properties for sale. July saw both trends in action.
“The chickens may have finally come home to roost for Massachusetts homebuyers,” Tim Warren, CEO of The Warren Group, said. “Since the start of the third quarter of 2020, it was apparent that based on the flurry of sales, paired with the ever-shrinking inventory of single-family homes across the state, that there it was only a matter of time before we saw sales start to slide on a year-over-year basis.”
The 6,327 single-family home sales here last month had a median sales price of $540,000 — a new record high for July and the fourth consecutive month with a median sales price above $500,000, the real estate market analysts said. July’s median sales price was up more than 17 percent from July 2020 and more than 27 percent over July 2019.
Meanwhile, the 2,897 condominium sales in July represented a 16.5 percent increase over July 2020 and a 17.6 percent increase over July 2019, The Warren Group said. Condo sales also carried a record-high sales price for July — up 9.3 percent from last year to $470,000. Warren cautioned that the condo market could soon cool off.
“Last year Covid concerns held back the condo market as buyers were cautious about multi-unit buildings. This year the buyers have returned, and condos are outperforming single-family homes sales,” he said. “With the Delta variant now dominant and evidence of the effectiveness of vaccines wearing off, prospective condo buyers may once again turn cautious.”
