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Sales of single-family and condominium homes surged in April after years of declines, leading one Realtor trade group to herald “a rebirth” of its regional housing market.

But the increased number of available homes that the closed-sales data reflects wasn’t enough to keep prices in check according to new data from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. The median statewide single-family sales price jumped 9.9 percent to $610,000, the biggest such jump since near-zero mortgage rates overheated the 2021 housing market. And the median condo sale price rose 3.4 percent to $532,500, a new all-time high for the month of April.

In total, The Warren Group reported 3,100 single-family home sales and 1,613 condo sales closed in last month, up from 2,902 and 1,495 in April 2023 respectively.

Within the Interstate 495 corridor, The Warren Group said the number of April single-family sales rose 8.8 percent year-over-year, to 1,517, with a median sale price of $760,000, a 10.1 percent increase on the same basis. Condominium sales in the same region rose 6.9 percent to 1,187 units, at a median sale price of $602,600 – a slight decrease from the region’s April 2023 median.

Even though mortgage rates spent much of April on an upward swing driven by economic data before falling later this month, new listings still increased by 22.3 percent statewide for single-family homes and 18.4 percent for condominiums year-over-year, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported.

Overall, 4,429 single-family homes and 2,589 condos were on the market last month, MAR said, representing 16.8 percent and 14.9 percent declines over April 2023.

In its own April sales statistics announcement Tuesday the Greater Boston Association of Realtors, whose territory covers a subset of that area focused on Greater Boston’s urban core plus the MetroWest region, said a 12.3 percent year-over-year increase in closed single-family sales in its territory and a 7.3 percent increase in the number of condo sales represented “increasing evidence a rebirth in the Boston area housing market has begun.”

“The softening in mortgage rates that occurred in the first two months of the year has helped to boost buyer optimism and spur activity, making it feel like a more normal spring market. On top of that, listings for single-family homes and condos are at their highest level in six months, which is providing buyers more choice and room for negotiation when entering the market,” GBAR 2024 President Jared Wilk said in a statement.

Wilk attributed the faster increase in single-family prices to a more serious shortage of that type of home, as compared to condominiums.

“Sellers are taking advantage of the imbalance between supply and demand to ask for top dollar, and many are getting it,” said Wilk, who is also a broker with Compass in Wellesley. “However, properties that are overpriced are staying on the market longer and often require a price adjustment, as most buyers are unable or unwilling to overextend themselves financially at today’s higher rates and prices.”

Those price adjustments appear to be few and far between, however. Data published by economists at listings portal Zillow last week found that only 14.1 percent of April’s combined single-family and condo listings had a price cut.

Along with other factors, that helped make Boston the fifth-worst housing market for first-time buyers in the country, just ahead of two of the three main housing markets in the San Francisco Bay Area. At the same time, big pulses of newly built homes coming up for sale in Texas and Florida markets pushed the share of home listings with a price cut in April to between 25 and 36 percent in every housing market Zillow tracks in both states. Florida and Texas markets also took eight of the top 10 slots in Zillow’s ranking of the best housing markets for first-time buyers right now.

“Prospective buyers in most markets today are feeling less intense competition than in recent spring shopping seasons. Pressure is easing up as mortgage rates raise costs and sellers return,” Skylar Olsen, Zillow chief economist, said in a statement. “However, the pool of homes for sale remains remarkably low. This means the nation remains a seller’s market despite high mortgage rates — homes are selling faster, with more buyer interest over any one listing, than pre-pandemic.”

Mass. Single-Family Prices See Biggest Jump Since 2021

by James Sanna time to read: 3 min
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