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Massachusetts’ prospective homebuyers are facing even tougher cost barriers when looking for a home, with the North Shore and Merrimack Valley hit hardest.
According to an affordability index maintained by real estate data firm ATTOM, median-priced single-family homes and condominiums remain less affordable in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to historical averages in 98 percent of counties around the nation with enough data to analyze.
In Suffolk County, the affordability index sat at 78 for the fourth quarter. Any score below 100 is less affordable than the historical average. Hampshire County suffered the least degradation in its affordability, with an index reading of 81, and Essex County suffered the most, with an index reading of 69.
“The U.S. housing market continues to generate great profits for most home sellers but also more and more financial stress for would-be buyers. Average workers now must shell out a larger portion of their wages for major home-ownership expenses than at any time since right before the housing market tanked in the late 2000s,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said in a statement. “Despite recent declines in mortgage rates, down payments on typical home purchases have reached four times the average national wage.”
Barber added that “at some point, something’s got to give, or a growing number of buyers will have no choice but to toss in the towel and wait for home ownership to become more affordable. But we clearly are not there yet.”
The national median price for single-family homes and condos has risen to a record high of $364,750 in the fourth quarter of 2024. This is 11.4 percent above the typical price in the fourth quarter of 2023. Median home prices have increased since the fourth quarter of last year in 503, or 88.9 percent, of the 566 counties included in the report from ATTOM.
The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, recently reported the year-to-date statewide single-family sale price hit $615,000 in November, while the same figure for condos hit $535,662. That’s up 7.34 percent and 4.44 percent year-over-year, respectively.
Wage growth is also leading to affordability issues. Year-over-year price changes have outpaced changes in weekly annualized wages during the fourth quarter of 2024 in 429, or 75.8 percent, of the counties analyzed in the report.
State officials announced a new, low-cost mortgage product last month for buyers in Boston, Randolph and the 26 state’s ex-industrial “Gateway Cities” – many of which are in Hampshire and Essex counties – that comes with up to $50,000 in down-payment assistance.
