Home sales down in April

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By Emily Micucci

Single-family home sales in Massachusetts declined in April compared to last year, both The Warren Group and the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) reported Wednesday, but prices continued to increase and demand from buyers remained high.

Timothy Warren, Jr., CEO of the Warren Group of Boston, said April figures reflect sales negotiated back in February, “the middle of a brutal winter,” and do not reflect the strength of the spring real estate market. In April, 3,427 single-family homes were sold, a 2.3-percent decline from April 2013, The Warren Group said. It was the third consecutive month that sales decreased compared with 2013, though April sales reached the highest level for any month this year.

“Nevertheless, it is a bit of a surprise that we are not seeing more forward momentum,” Warren said in a a statement.

MAR reported a larger decline in sales; it said there were 3,221 detached single-family homes sold in April, down 7.2 percent from 3,472 in April 2013. But on a month-to-month basis, MAR said sales jumped 17.3 percent, from 2,746 homes sold in March.

Meanwhile, median selling prices continued to creep upward last month due to a continued lack of inventory. The Warren Group reported a “modest” increase of 0.6 percent for single-family homes, bringing the median price to $315,000. MAR reported an increase of 2.3 percent, or $320,000, in April.

“While a shortage of homes for sale does exist, there have been pockets of improvement across the state and we’ve seen inventory gaps shrinking over the past five months,” MAR President Peter Ruffini said in a statement.

The median selling price for a condominium in Massachusetts closely trailed that of a single-family home, according to The Warren Group and MAR, which reported respective medians of $310,000 and $319,000. Those reflect increases of 10.7 percent and 11.7 percent over April 2013.

MAR reported a 2.3-percent decrease in condo sales, but The Warren Group said condo sales increased 7 percent in April, compared to 2013.