BOSTON — This summer has seen one of the best three month stretches for the sale of single-family homes in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in years, with July being the best month of the summer, according to two market tracking groups.
The 5,750 homes sold in the state last month marked an increase of more than 20 percent compared to the same time last year, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) announced, the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year increases and the most homes sold in the Bay State in one month since July 2004.
The Warren Group, a publisher of real estate data based in Boston, reported an 18 percent increase in sales last month when compared with July 2012, and the highest volume of sales since June 2006.
“Many recent real estate reports have signaled a strong real estate recovery, and our numbers speak to that rebound,” said David Harris, editorial director of The Warren Group.
In Westfield, the market is looking to continue to ascend, and realtors are hoping a strong summer will lead into a prosperous fall.
“We’re up about 25 to 30 percent from last year,” said Ted Cassell, owner of Park Square Realty in Westfield. “It’s a little quieter now, but people are going to try to take advantage of the fall market.”
Cassell said that homes are selling in multiple price ranges, and that is bringing the average up across the board.
“The biggest number of sales have occurred in the $150,000-200,000 range. There’ve been 31 sales in Westfield,” he said. “And in the $250,000-299,000 range, there’s been fourteen sales.”
Cassell also said that the upper end, $300,000 to 400,000 homes are also selling, with seven sales in that price range this summer.”
“We’re getting multiple offers on a lot of homes,” he said. “Last year at this time, there had been only 28 homes sold in the $150,000-$200,000 range.”
Across the Commonwealth, the pressure to take advantage of rising but still relatively low interest rates leads many industry veterans to believe fall will continue the buying trend.
“The combination of buyers wanting to close and move in before the start of the school year and their concern over increasing interest rates resulted in another positive month in July,” MAR president Kimberly Allard-Moccia said.
Both the MAR and the Warren Group reported an increase in median prices.
The Warren Group said median prices jumped 10 percent in July 2013 from the year before to $349,000, while the MAR said median prices went up nearly 8 percent to $350,000.
Heather Witalisz, co-owner of the Witalisz and Associates, cited Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, data to quantify the rise in the average sale price for the Westfield area.
According to Witalisz, between June 1 and August 31 of this year, the average sale price in the area was $225,940.
“We’ve got more realistic sellers,” she said when asked of the factors in the market’s summer success. “The low interest rates have gone up slightly, but there are still buyers out there.”
