Half-million for a home: Worcester County median home price hits $500K as Central Mass. sales totals drop
Photo | Timothy Doyle
Homes on Worcester's west side
After prospective homeowners in Worcester and Middlesex Counties saw some signs of relief in May, June saw the return of decreases in total sales in both counties compared to last year, as prices continued their upward trajectory.
Both counties saw increases in median sales prices when compared to last June; Worcester County’s median sales price was $500,000, a 8.2% increase from $462,000, while Middlesex County’s median was $885,510, a 6.7% increase from $830,000.
Worcester County saw 638 home sales in June, a 11.3% decrease from the total of 699 sales seen in June 2023. Middlesex County witnessed a slightly less significant drop, with 1,007 sales, a 3.3% decrease from the 1,041 seen last June, according to data released Tuesday by The Warren Group, a Peabody-based real estate research firm.
The increase in prices and decrease in sales followed statewide trends in June, suggesting the state’s housing crunch continues; the median price rose 8.1% from $615,000 to last June’s $665,000 and total sales declined 8.9%, from 4,876 to 4,441.
“It wasn’t that long ago that the prospect of the median single-family home price exceeding $600,000 seemed like a long shot, but here we are with a median price approaching $700,000,” Cassidy Norton, associate publisher and media relations director of The Warren Group, said in a Tuesday press release accompanying the data release.
The main driver of these trends is a lack of homes to sell, said Norton.
“A lack of inventory is clearly driving this record-setting appreciation,” Norton said. “Despite these record prices, higher mortgage interest rates have actually slowed price growth – the median may have been even higher without those changes – but it has also contributed to low inventory.”
The climb in price of single-family homes continued in the city of Worcester, as the median price rose 5.5% from last June, hitting $432,500. The number of sales decreased 8%, from 100 to 92.
Fitchburg saw a slight decline in sales, with 29 compared to last June’s 27, and a 2.6% in median price, from $390,000 to $380,000. Leominster actually saw an increase in sales, with 27 compared to 20, but a 28.6% increase in median sales price, from $431,500 to $555,000.
In Middlesex County, Framingham saw an increase in total sales, from 43 to 51, and a 13.3% increase in median sales price, from $649,000 to $735,000. Natick saw sales fall from 38 in June 2023 to 23 this June, as the median price rose from $888,500 to $915,000, a 9% increase.
So far in 2024, there have been 18,451 home sales in Massachusetts, a 0.8% decrease from the first six months of 2023.
Eric Casey is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.
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