Mass. home sales down in July

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By Sam Bonacci

Sales of single-family homes and condominiums in Massachusetts fell in July for the first time since 2010, while the median sale price continued to climb.

"The decrease in single-family home and condo sales is discouraging, and the limited inventory is definitely a factor," said Cassidy Murphy, editorial director of The Warren Group, of Boston. "The rise in the median selling price for both single-family homes and condos indicates that good inventory is selling quickly, and at a good price. There just isn't a lot of it."

The 5,688 single-family homes sold in July was down 4.2 percent from July 2013, according to the group. The last time there was a year-over-year drop for single-family home sales in July was in 2010, when sales fell 27.6 percent.

Condominium sales fell 4.3 percent from the previous year, with 2,235 condos sold, compared to 2,336 the previous year. For the year, condo sales are up 6.7 percent, at 11,827 compared to 11,080 for the same period last year, according to the Warren Group.

Median prices for groups of homes were up for the 22nd straight month, according to The Warren Group. The median for single-family homes increased 1.7 percent to $355,000, while condo prices rose 5.5 percent to an average of $327,000 across the state.

New listings were also up for the third straight month, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors’ July 2014 Home Sales Report. Single-family listings increased by 7.6 percent compared to the previous July, while condo listings grew by 4.7 percent.

“For the third straight month we’ve seen the number of new listings added to the market go up and that is a positive trend,” said 2014 MAR President Peter Ruffini. “This is the type of activity we need to bring our overall inventory up and keep prices from escalating to a point where it pushes buyers out of the market.”