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January 22, 2016

First-time buyers to fuel 2016 housing market

Realtor Tom Rheault stands in front of the triple decker he purchased as a first-time buyer.

Growth in the 2016 New England housing market will be spearheaded by first-time buyers, according to the RE/MAX INTEGRA New England 2016 Housing Forecast, continuing a trend that was seen throughout 2015.

According to RE/MAX, there was strong market activity throughout New England once the region thawed out from the winter, resulting in 9 percent growth in single-family home sales in 2015. Much of this was a result of purchases from first-time buyers, according to RE/MAX, and that trend is expected to continue into 2016 as renters continue to see the value in ownership.

“At one point, millennials were like nomads who never wanted to buy a home, kept renting and moving from job to job,” Melvin Vieira, a Sales Consultant at RE/MAX Destiny in Jamaica Plain, said. “They realize they are making good money and don’t want to waste it with a rental as they see home values going up.”

This first-time buyer activity is expected to continue the strong home sales that Massachusetts saw in 2015. The average median sales price of a single-family home in Massachusetts increased 3 percent from $332,000 in 2014 to $342,000 in 2015 according to MLS PIN data. Single-family home transactions increased 8.9 percent from 42,862 homes sold in 2014 to 46,688 sold in 2015, and condominium sales increased 2.8 percent year-over-year.

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