Worcester home sales fall 22%, dropping faster than Worcester County and statewide averages
Photo | Timothy Doyle
Highland Street, Worcester
The number of homes sold in the city of Worcester in July dropped 21.5% compared with July 2021.
This compares with an 11% drop in the number of sales in Worcester County for July year over year and a 17% drop statewide, according to a report released Tuesday by Peabody real estate research firm The Warren Group.
North County cities however, saw a sharp increase in sales with Leominster and Fitchburg sales rising 21% year over year.
“Mortgage rates are now over 5% while a year ago they were under 3%. The single-family home median price is $45,000 higher than a year ago. Increases in wages and salaries are not keeping pace with inflation that is now running at 8.5%. Plus, homebuyers face a very low inventory of homes for sale. All this leads us to a cooler real estate market,” said Tim Warren, CEO of The Warren Group in a Tuesday press release.
On pricing, the median cost of a single-family home sold in Worcester in July continued its upward climb, rising 14.7% to $390,000.
Prices have continued to rise countywide and statewide with the median price of a single-family home in Worcester County reaching $445,000 and $585,000 statewide.
Nationally, low inventory levels are unlikely to be helped by new single-family construction.
“Construction starts of both single-family and multifamily housing units fell in July. The decline in single-family starts to 916,000 annualized units is the lowest since the COVID-19 lockdown months in the spring of 2020 and essentially matches the annual total of 888,000 in 2019 before the pandemic,” said Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors chief economist, in a Monday press release.
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