Costs Rose In Might However Market Exercise Outpaced Might 2023
JUNE 18, 2024…..For the second straight month, the variety of single-family properties offered in Massachusetts in Might was up in comparison with one yr earlier, however the improve in gross sales didn’t take any stress off the pricing aspect of the equation as a backlog of demand amongst home hunters retains costs hovering at or close to all-time highs.
The true property market analysts at The Warren Group reported Tuesday that there have been 3,887 single-family residence gross sales in Massachusetts final month, representing a 7.5 p.c improve over the three,616 gross sales recorded in Might 2023 and simply the fourth time in nearly three years that residence gross sales have been up from the identical month a yr prior.
However whilst gross sales have been up, so too have been sale costs. The median single-family residence sale worth was up 7.9 p.c year-over-year foundation to hit $636,000 in Might, a brand new all-time excessive for the month.
“Remarkably, throughout the identical interval, the median sale worth climbed nearly 8 p.c to achieve an all-time excessive of $636,000. Usually, elevated gross sales would mood worth development, however the pent-up demand from homebuyers is redefining market dynamics,” Cassidy Norton, The Warren Group’s affiliate writer, mentioned.
Gross sales quantity was up final month in every county except Bristol, Plymouth, Franklin and Nantucket counties. In each Might and thru the primary 5 months of the yr, Berkshire County noticed the best p.c improve in single-family residence gross sales. The county’s 112 gross sales final month have been up 31.8 p.c over Might 2023, and the 399 gross sales there to date this yr signify an 11.1 p.c improve over a yr prior.
Berkshire County was additionally one among two (together with Dukes County) to publish a decline within the median sale worth from Might 2023 to Might 2024, dropping 1.5 p.c from $325,000 to $320,000. On Martha’s Winery, the median sale worth dropped practically 25 p.c from $1,600,000 to $1,216,250 in Might.
The sharpest worth improve to date this yr has been recorded on Nantucket. The median worth of the 35 single-family residence gross sales on the island to date this yr stands at $2.95 million, greater than $1 million greater than the median worth of $1.9 million by means of the primary 5 months of 2023.
Via Might, there have been 14,005 single-family properties offered throughout all of Massachusetts in 2024, a 2.1 p.c improve over the gross sales quantity of the identical 5 months of 2023. In the meantime although, the year-to-date median single-family residence worth has elevated 9.3 p.c on to $590,000.
On the condominium aspect of the market, there have been 1,922 gross sales accomplished in Might 2024, a 4.3 p.c improve over the 1,843 gross sales in Might 2023. The median sale worth in the meantime climbed 4.6 p.c on a year-over-year foundation to $550,000, a brand new all-time excessive for the month of Might, The Warren Group mentioned.
Thus far this yr, there have been 7,016 condominium gross sales in Massachusetts, a 0.5 p.c lower in comparison with the primary 5 months of 2023, whereas the median sale worth has risen 6 p.c to $530,000.
House gross sales throughout Massachusetts fell to a 12-year low in 2023 and housing right here is inaccessible or unaffordable for a lot of residents. Gov. Maura Healey final yr recognized housing as “the number-one difficulty going through this state” and mentioned there’s a scarcity of 200,000 models throughout the state.
The Home this month expanded Healey’s housing bond and policy bill to pump it as much as a $6.5 billion and five-year plan that now additionally features a $1 billion growth of the Mass. Water Sources Authority in jap Mass. The Senate is anticipated to contemplate its personal model of that invoice subsequent week, although that department has not but unveiled its particular plans to encourage badly-needed housing manufacturing.
One other snapshot of the housing market and the struggles that householders and renters face is anticipated on Thursday, when the Joint Middle for Housing Research of Harvard College plans to launch the “State of the Nation’s Housing 2024 Report.”
“On the for-sale aspect, tens of millions of potential homebuyers have been priced out of the market by excessive residence costs and rates of interest, whereas the variety of renters with value burdens has hit an all-time excessive,” the middle mentioned in an advisory final month. “Nevertheless, a surge in new multifamily rental models is slowing hire development and accelerated single-family development is beginning to life for-sale inventories.”
