Analysts Point to Holiday-Season Slowdown Among Prospective Buyers
There were 2,305 single-family homes sold across Massachusetts last month, almost 13% fewer than were sold a year earlier as analysts point to a holiday-season slowdown among prospective buyers.
The Warren Group reported Tuesday that January’s sales represented a decline of 12.7% compared to January 2025. But with the number of sales down, the median single-family home price continued to climb last month, up 4.7% over last January to hit $612,500.
Cassidy Norton, associate publisher of The Warren Group, said homes that closed in January went under agreement in November or December, a time when the holidays generally mean fewer active house hunters. “The lack of inventory also contributed to a drop in sales and increase in price,” she said.
The dynamic of chronically-limited inventory and always-escalating prices has played a major role in driving up cost of living in Massachusetts.
State policymakers are counting on a new housing production law to begin to chip away at what is expected to be a 220,000-plus housing unit shortage by 2030. Gov. Maura Healey said in December that the state has so far “started or built 100,000 homes” and touted her administration’s release of 450 acres of surplus state land “to be developed into thousands of new homes.”
Worcester recorded more single-family home sales last month than any other municipality, with 53 (still, a 21% drop from the 67 sales recorded last January). Next up on the list was Plymouth, with 31 closed sales. Falmouth and Chicopee were tied with 26 sales, followed by 25 sales in each Brockton and Pittsfield, and 24 sales recorded in Wareham and New Bedford, according to the Warren Group. By comparison, there were five single-family homes sold in Boston last month.
