A flat month for single-family homes sales in December – reversing a trend of five months of gains – capped what the real estate tracking firm The Warren Group called the worst year in two decades for home sales.
2011 ended the year with 38,994 single-family home sales, down 5.7 percent from 41,389 in 2010, the Warren Group said. That’s the lowest number of single-family home sales since 35,819 were sold in 1990.
The Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported slightly different year-end results, finding that year-end sales were down only 2 percent from a year earlier. 2010’s numbers, however, may have been artificially inflated due to a first-time homebuyer tax credit that fueled home sales two years ago, MAR officials said. MAR only tracks sales that a registered Realtor is involved in.
Home prices also skidded in 2011, MAR found, with prices dropping 3.3 percent on the year.
As for December’s monthly figures, home sales were flat in the month after five months of year-over-year gains. Home prices dropped in December for the third straight month on a year-over-year basis.
