Hampshire County home prices up again in January, but so are sales

FILE - A sale sign stands outside a home in Wyndmoor, Pa., June 22, 2022. One of the nation's largest real estate brokerages has agreed Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024, to pay 70 million as part of a proposed settlement to resolve more than a dozen lawsuits across the country over agent commissions. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE - A sale sign stands outside a home in Wyndmoor, Pa., June 22, 2022. One of the nation's largest real estate brokerages has agreed Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024, to pay 70 million as part of a proposed settlement to resolve more than a dozen lawsuits across the country over agent commissions. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) Matt Rourke

Staff Report

Published: 02-22-2024 12:06 PM

 

The number of single-family homes sold in Hampshire County were up by 16% in January over the same month last year, the first time that home sales have gone up year-over-year since the summer of 2021, according to real estate data analysts at The Warren Group.

The median price of those January sales, meanwhile, came in at $380,000, up more than 5% when compared to the median price of $361,000 during the same month in 2023. That continued a longtime trend of sale prices going up.

Last month, there were 57 single-family home sales in Hampshire County in January, up from 49 during the same month a year ago.

Since August 2021 — the last time the number of home sales have gone up when comparing the same month in consecutive years — sales in the county have steadily dropped. In 2023, for example, there were 973 homes sold in Hampshire County, a drop of 26.3% from 2022 sales, which came in at 1,321. The median price of those sales, meanwhile, climbed from $380,000 in 2022 to $395,000 in 2023.

Statewide, the price of a single-family home was up more than 10% in January from the same time last year, The Warren Group found.

“Single-family sales were relatively flat from January 2023, but the slight uptick is the only year-over-year increase we’ve recorded since the middle of 2021,” said Cassidy Norton, associate publisher and media relations director of The Warren Group. “The issues that pained the Massachusetts housing market in 2023, like limited inventory, economic uncertainties, and higher interest rates are still at the forefront of prospective buyers.”

Unlike sales of single-family homes, condominium sales decreased significantly from this time last year.

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In January, there were 975 condo units sold, compared to 1,176 in the same month of 2023 — a 17.1% decrease, and the fewest transactions recorded for the month of January since 2012. Meanwhile, prices are going up.

The median sale price for a condo increased 5.5% on a year-over-year basis to $507,000 — similar to the single-family home market, a new all-time high for the month of January.

Lawmakers and Gov. Maura Healey have identified housing affordability and accessibility as one of their biggest concerns, but the Legislature has yet to advance a housing bond bill Healey filed last fall to invest in the housing market and make policy changes that the governor says would help solve the housing crisis.