Hampshire County home sales drop, prices up

 

  fstop123

By COLIN A. YOUNG

State House News Service

Published: 07-23-2024 8:28 PM

The median sale price of single-family homes in Hampshire County climbed by 10% in June over the same month last year, though the total number of homes sold dropped by nearly 13% in the same timeframe.

The numbers reflect statewide figures, as real estate data analysts at The Warren Group reported Tuesday that the median sale prices of both single-family homes and condos hit new all-time highs in Massachusetts last month. The news comes as a group of six Beacon Hill lawmakers attempt to produce a compromise housing production-inducing bill by the end of July.

In Hampshire County last month, there were 110 single-family home sales, down from 126, or 12.7%,  during the same month a year ago. The median price of those June sales, meanwhile, came in at $465,650, up about 19% when compared to the median price of $392,000 during the same month in 2023. That continued a longtime trend of sale prices going up.

Through the first six months of the year, the number of sales year-to-date countywide are up 2.4%, from 414 in 2023 to 424 this year. Sale prices year-to-date are up 10%, coming in at $420,000 this year compared to $381,641 in 2023.

In Franklin County last month, there were 46 single-family home sales, down from 65 a year ago, or nearly 29%. The median price of those June sales, meanwhile, came in at $385,000, up 34.6% when compared to the median price of $286,000 during the same month in 2023. 

Year-to-date in Franklin County, sales dropped to 220, or 5.6% lower than the 233 through the first six months of 2023. Prices, meanwhile, climbed to $319,500, up 11% from $288,000 last year.

There were 4,441 single-family home sales in Massachusetts in June, according to The Warren Group, an 8.9% decrease compared to June 2023. At the same time, the median sale price increased 8.1% year-over-year to hit $665,000, a new all-time high.

“It wasn’t that long ago that the prospect of the median single-family home price exceeding $600,000 seemed like a long shot, but here we are with a median price approaching $700,000,” Cassidy Norton, associate publisher of The Warren Group, said. “A lack of inventory is clearly driving this record-setting appreciation. Despite these record prices, higher mortgage interest rates have actually slowed price growth – the median may have been even higher without those changes – but it has also contributed to low inventory.”

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The 18,451 single-family home sales in Massachusetts this year through June represents a 0.8% decrease compared to the first six months of 2023. But the year-to-date median home price has increased 9.8% compared to where it was a year ago, having climbed to $609,900, The Warren Group said.

Not counting Cape Cod or the islands, Middlesex County had the highest median sale price in July, $885,510. And Hampden County had the lowest median sale price in July, at $325,000. The median price was $749,900 for Barnstable County, $1.245 million on Martha’s Vineyard and $2.875 million on Nantucket, The Warren Group said.

Once thought of as a more-affordable or more-accessible option in the red-hot Massachusetts housing market, condominiums followed many of the same trends as single-family homes here last month.

The Warren Group counted 1,938 condo sales in June 2024, compared to 2,324 in June 2023 – a 16.6 percent drop. Meanwhile, the median condo sale price was up 5.2 percent to $570,000 – a new all-time high for condos – last month.

“The median Massachusetts condo price may well exceed $600,000 in the coming months,” Norton said.

There have been 8,954 condo sales here so far in 2024, down 4.5 percent from the first six months of 2023 while the median sale price of $540,000 represents a 5.9 percent increase from one year ago, The Warren Group said.

Home sales across Massachusetts fell to a 12-year low in 2023 and housing here is inaccessible or unaffordable for many residents. Gov. Maura Healey last year identified housing as “the number-one issue facing this state” and said there is a shortage of 200,000 units across the state.

A six-person conference committee began negotiating July 11 with the goal of sending a compromise housing policy and borrowing bill to the governor’s desk by the time formal sessions end July 31.