Prices Still Rising, Sales Tracking Close To Lackluster 2023 Totals
NOV. 19, 2024…..House hunters in Massachusetts were able to take advantage of September’s lower mortgage interest rates and it showed up in the October data: single-family home sales volume was up more than 11 percent last month compared to October 2023.
The Warren Group said Tuesday that there were 3,926 single-family homes sold here last month, compared to the 3,518 that closed last October. Analysts had a mostly muted response to the fall sales increase.
“October’s single-family home sales in Massachusetts showed a modest year-over-year increase in volume, signaling a slight rebound in activity despite the challenging market conditions,” Cassidy Norton, associate publisher at The Warren Group, said. “However, sales remain significantly below historical norms due to persistently limited inventory and elevated mortgage rates. At the same time, the median sale price surged 6.9 percent year-over-year to $615,000, setting a new all-time high for the month of October.”
That dynamic of chronically-limited inventory and always-escalating prices helps to make Massachusetts an expensive place to live. Gov. Maura Healey and other Beacon Hill Democrats expect that a housing borrowing and policy bill she signed this summer will begin to chip away at what is projected to be a 220,000-plus housing unit shortage by 2030.
There have been 34,784 single-family homes sold in Massachusetts through the first 10 months of 2024. That marks a 1.6 percent increase over the same 10 months of 2023, a year that ended with the lowest sales volume in more than a decade. The 2024-to-date median single-family home price has increased 8.2 percent over the same period to $616,925, The Warren Group said.
Norton said September saw average mortgage interest rates fall to their lowest level so far this year, and that homes put under agreement that month closed in October.
“This likely contributed to the rise in the number of sales, as buyers took advantage of the brief relief in interest rates. This combination of constrained supply and strong demand continues to push prices higher, even as buyers navigate affordability challenges,” she said.
Amy Wallick, 2024 president of the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS and a sales agent at Lamacchia Realty, said the increase in closed sales during October is a “promising” indication of renewed buyer activity heading into winter. But MAR also noted that new listings for single family-homes decreased by 15.6 percent in October.
“As we approach the last months of 2024, we encourage buyers to remain active in their search and with limited new listings and strong buyer demand, sellers are well-positioned in this competitive market,” she said.
