Confidence in the real estate market from the state’s Realtors rose for the seventh straight month in February, while confidence in rising prices jumped for the sixth consecutive month.
The Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) said the milder winter and historically low interest rates helped fuel a “significant increase” in market activity last month.
The MAR said its Market Index is up 24 percent from January and 40.7 percent from February 2011, indicating increased market confidence, though still slightly below the “moderate” level on the MAR’s 100-point scale. The February reading was 39.47.
The MAR’s Price Index was much higher in February, at 54.9. That’s up 19 percent from the January reading and nearly 17 percent over February 2011. The index measures how much Realtors believe housing prices will rise or fall over the next year.
