Warren Group reports, 'Home sale prices ‘have either peaked or plateaued’ in Greater Boston'
Home prices are still climbing statewide, but the seller’s market in Greater Boston “appears to be coming to an end,” according to reports released Tuesday.
The median sale price for a single-family home in the state hit $388,000 in October, a high for that month, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.
“And so, the record-setting continues,” said Tim Warren, CEO. “The median single-family home price has reached new highs every month so far this year, and I fully expect this streak to continue for the remainder of 2019. The trend is a gradual increase in median price compared with the same month in the prior year. The increase in October was 3.5 percent, but over the first 10 months of 2019, it was 3.9 percent. These are not huge gains, and in fact, the gains this year are lower than either of the two previous years.”
In the state’s condo market, the median sale price rose 11.1 percent year over year to $370,000 — a record for October, according to the report.
“The condo market has been red hot so far this year, and October was no exception,” Warren said. “Sales totaling 2,119 transactions marked the most condos sold in the month of October since 2006.”
In Greater Boston, the single-family and condo markets “struggled,” according to figures the Greater Boston Association of Realtors released Tuesday. The single-family home market saw its lowest October sales total in more than 20 years, according to the report, and the condo market was met with a 31 percent decline.
“A late summer slowdown in the market is not uncommon, but this year it was more pronounced,” said Jim Major, association president and an agent with Century 21 North East in Woburn. “For one, we had fewer buyers entering the market, as some chose to sit back in anticipation of an influx of new homes being listed for sale after Labor Day. Additionally, with inventory up and price adjustments becoming more commonplace, buyers have more inventory to look at, and many are proceeding more slowly and taking a wait-and-see attitude until prices settle.”