Home, condo sales fall again in May

Courtesy of The Warren Group The median price for homes sold in the first five months of 2014 is 6.3 percent higher than 2013, while the median condo price is up 8.5 percent.

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Single-family home sales dropped for the fourth consecutive month, according to data released today by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) and The Warren Group.

Single-family home sales fell 9.9 percent from 4,772 in Mary 2013 to 4,300, the MAR said. Meanwhile, condominium sales fell 1.1 percent over the same period from 2,016 to 1,994, the MAR said.

Year-to-date home sales are down from 16,073 to 15,467, according to the Warren Group, while year-to-date condo sales are up from 2,015 to 2,146.

“Single-family sales volume is still slipping,” CEO Tim Warren Jr. said in a statement. “Low inventory and lingering winter weather in March (when most of the May closings went under agreement) may have depressed the number of sales.”

In Worcester County, home sales were down 11.1 percent, with 563 units sold in May, according to The Warren Group. Condo sales increased 3 percent year over year to 138.

Meanwhile, home sales in Middlesex County fell 7.4 percent to 1,029, while condo sales climbed 2 percent to 649, The Warren Group found.

Also, the median home sales price statewide jumped from $325,000 in May 2013 to $347,900 in May 2014, according to MAR, while the median condo price rose from $290,000 to $316,000.

The median price for homes sold in the first five months of 2014 is 6.3 percent higher than 2013, The Warren Group said, while the median condo price is up 8.5 percent.

“Qualified buyers are taking advantage of the still-low interest rates to buy the limited supply of homes available and are pushing prices up,” MAR President Peter Ruffini said in a statement.

New home listings increased 4.1 percent in May to 9,674, the highest recorded figure since May 2007, according to the MAR. New condo listings, though, fell for the fifth consecutive month, dropping 3.7 percent to 2,981.