Mass. home prices up a little in Nov.

Home prices in Massachusetts rose modestly in November while sales were about flat compared with November 2013, according to data in the monthly report by The Warren Group of Boston.

The report, released Tuesday, said the median price of a single-family home rose 1.6 percent last month, to $315,000. Yet it marked the 10th month out of the last 12 in which prices increased year over year.

The number of single-family sales, meanwhile, rose only slightly, to 3,878 from 3,871 a year earlier, The Warren Group said.

In the first 11 months of the year, the median selling price is up 2.2 percent, to $330,000, compared with $323,000 during the same period last year. But sales are down 2.4 percent, with 45,021 homes sold compared with 46,141 during the same time frame last year.

"Ending the year with increases in both sales and prices for single-family homes is a good way to enter a new year of buying and selling," Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, said in a statement. "We have seen sales of single-family homes inch up two months in a row now. Perhaps the good employment statistics in recent months are having a positive impact.”

In Middlesex and Worcester counties, the number of sales was down year over year, although the year-to-date median price gains exceeded the statewide average. In Middlesex County, sales are down 4.1 percent through the first 11 months of the year, while the median sale price - $440,000 – is up 3.53 percent. In Worcester County, sales are down 1.5 percent. But the median sale is up 3.03 percent to $234,900.

Sales of condominiums were also down in both counties. But year-to-date median prices are up: for Middlesex, 7.1 percent to $348,025, and for Worcester, 2.8 percent to $185,000.