The Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) market confidence and price confidence indexes both hit all-time highs in January.

Members generally believed more buyers would enter the market if interest rates were to go up at least one percentage point over the next six months, MAR said today.

"Realtor-members’ confidence in the market is miles away from when we started tracking this data in 2008," 2013 MAR President Kimberly Allard-Moccia, broker-owner of Century21 Professionals in Braintree, said in a statement. "Realtor-members are positive about the market because their clients are. To hit all-time highs in both indexes in the same month is a good indication of how the market is doing."

In January, the MAR confidence index was 65, up 104 percent from the January 2012 score of 31.86. This is an all-time high and the 18th straight month of year-over-year increases. January also marks the fifth straight month of 100-percent plus increases. On a month-to-month basis, the January Realtor market confidence index was up 13 percent from 57.47 in December 2012. Measured on a 100-point scale, a score of 50 is the midpoint between a "strong" (100 points) and a "weak" (0 points) market condition.    

The Realtor price confidence index was 77.07 in January, another all-time high and the second time it went over the 70-point mark. The January index was up 67 percent from the January 2012 RPCI of 46. This is the 12th straight month of year-over-year increases and the ninth straight month the Realtor price confidence index has been over the 60-point mark. On a month-to-month basis, the RPCI was up 6 percent from the December 2012 mark of 72.71.

MAR members were asked what would be the impact on the Massachusetts real estate market in the next six months if interest rates on mortgages went up at least one percentage point. Of those who responded to the survey, 39 percent answered there would be a significant increase of buyers into the market (7.4 percent) or there would be a moderate increase of buyers into the market (31.5 percent). Thirty-two percent felt there would be no change from the current trend, while 7.5 percent responded there would be a significant increase in the amount of sellers that would enter the market or felt there would be a moderate increase of sellers into the market.