Worcester home values rose 18% in 2021

In December, Greater Worcester sale prices for single-family homes continued to rise steadily, up nearly 14% in the city and 10% countywide, while the number of sales decreased, following statewide trends, according to a Tuesday report from Peabody-based research firm the Warren Group.

The city of Worcester had a 13.8% drop in single-family home sales last month from 152 sales in December 2020 to 131 last month. For all of 2021, Worcester sales have still increased 4.4% with 1,368 total sales in 2021.

The median price of a Worcester home was $340,000 in December, a 14.3% increase from this time last year. The yearly median price was similar, $335,750, and marks a 17.8% total increase in the city’s home prices in 2021. 

Worcester County’s median home price was $365,000 in December, a 10% increase from the median price of December 2020. Over the course of the year, Worcester County home prices increased 15.4% from $325,000 to $375,000.

The number of monthly sales in Worcester County has decreased from this time last year, but was still an annual 0.9% increase with a total of 8,893 sales in 2021. Franklin and Worcester Counties had the two smallest declines in monthly sales for December at 4.1% and 4.4% decreases respectively. 

These are significantly lower than the Massachusetts average, which was a 13.4% drop in the number of December sales statewide. 

The number of Massachusetts home sales is still significantly up for the last two years. With 5,588 sales statewide, Massachusetts had 12.1% more home sales in December 2021 than it did in December 2019. For 2021, the total number of sales in the state is up 0.8%.

The average price of a Massachusetts home is now $510,000, according to the year-end figures, which is 14.1% higher than it was in 2020 and 27.5% higher than in 2019.