MAR president Kurt Thompson
WALTHAM, MA—The Massachusetts Association of Realtors reports that fueled by strong demand, the median single-family and condominium home prices put under agreement increased over the $400,000 mark in Massachusetts during the month of January.
The median sale price for a single-family home rose 6.9% from $379,900 in January 2019 to $406,000 in January 2020. The median price for a condominium in the Commonwealth spiked 10.4% from $366,250 in January 2019 to $404,500 in January 2020.
"The spring market started on January 1st as buyers made accepted offers that kept prices above $400,000," says 2020 MAR president Kurt Thompson, broker at Keller Williams Realty North Central in Leominster, MA "While football-free weekends and mild temperatures in January helped, it's truly the demand to live in Massachusetts that has kept prices going up."
Another sign of a continued strong market comes in the form of pending sales, where buyer demand is high in both the single-family and condominium sectors.
MAR reports that single-family pending sales at the end of January totaled 3,628 units, a 10.2% increase from a year earlier, while condo pending sales totaled 1,580, which was 10.1% higher than levels posted in January 2019.
The Realtor association asked its members to describe their clients' current attitudes towards the home buying and selling process as housing inventory continues to plunge.
For buyers, almost 6% said their clients were not frustrated by the shortage of inventory at this point. More than 95% of respondents reported their buyer clients were either somewhat frustrated but still hopeful and aggressively in the market (57%), increasingly frustrated and complaining or weighing other options, (24%), or very frustrated and taking a break from house-hunting right now (12%). Only 1% of respondents reported that their buyers were seeing no shortage of inventory in their local markets.
For sellers, 17% of respondents said that their clients are not worried about finding a home when it's time to buy. Nearly 73% of respondents reported their clients are either somewhat concerned (38%) or very concerned (29%). A total of 5% stated they were concerned to the point where they have decided to take their home off the market because they feel like they won't be able to find a home when it's time to buy.
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John Jordan
John Jordan is a veteran journalist with 36 years of print and digital media experience.
