Homebuyers searching for a place to live in Middlesex County, start saving up now. The median price for a single-family home last year broke the $300,000 mark for the first time ever.

Single-family home prices in Middlesex County in 2001 exceeded prices in most parts of the Bay State, except for Nantucket and Dukes counties, where median prices for single-family homes surged to $795,000 and $380,000, respectively.

Sales volume for single-family homes in Middlesex County, on the other hand, has been falling for the last three years.

Local Realtors offered various explanations for the sales and price trend, including the increased buyer demand because of lower interest rates, and the lack of for-sale homes and vacant land for new construction.

“There are many more buyers than there is inventory,” said Mary Ann Quinn, a Realtor with Re/Max Top Achievers in Reading.

That is putting more pressure on homebuyers and sellers, with the luxury of sifting through multiple offers, are unwilling to negotiate on price, said Quinn.

The price wars started to ease in the summer and fall of last year as the economic outlook floundered, and Quinn started to see more negotiations between buyers and sellers in Stoneham, Reading, Melrose and Wilmington – the communities she serves. But in the last few months there is more urgency among buyers and the “overbidding” has started again, said Quinn.

The median price for a single-family home in Middlesex County jumped almost 11 percent last year to $305,000 from $275,900 in 2000, according to The Warren Group, parent company of Banker & Tradesman. Last year’s price increase was more modest than the prior year, when the median price increased more than 16 percent from $237,000 in 1999. But median prices have surged 62 percent since 1997, when the median price for a single-family home in Middlesex County was just $188,000.

Meanwhile, sales in the county were down 9 percent last year. Some 10,927 single-family homes were sold in 2001 compared to 12,045 in 2000, according to The Warren Group, which tracks sales at registries of deeds throughout the state.

If interest rates continue to remain stable, improving economic indicators likely means more buyers will emerge and prices will continue to rise more. And since there isn’t likely to be a tremendous surge of single-family homes coming on the market, that will be bad news for homebuyers, according to Realtors.

In Eastern Middlesex County, for example, there were six open houses in the general area this past weekend, not enough for the hundreds of buyers searching, said Quinn.

“I don’t know that the inventory is going to open that widely,” in future months, said Quinn. “It’s a little bit discouraging for the buyer.”

While Middlesex County overall experienced a drop in single-family home sales volume last year, sales were up 13 percent in Stoneham and almost 7 percent in Reading.

Some 190 single-family homes were sold in Stoneham last year, up from 168 sold in 2000 but still less than the 202 homes sold in 1999. In Reading, 278 single-family homes were sold last year, compared to 260 in 2000. But last year’s single-family home sales in Reading still trailed the 292 sales of 1999.

‘A Necessary Item’

Judy Moore of Re/Max Premier Properties in Lexington said she expects prices to continue to rise, although not at the same pace as in prior years.

“As long as the confidence still exists in the economy and housing is still a necessary item for everyone, prices will continue to increase,” said Moore. “But I don’t believe that prices are rising as much as they did before.”

The median price for a single-family home in Lexington was roughly $190,000 more than the countywide median. The median price in that community was $499,500 in 2001, up nearly 11 percent from the $451,000 median price of 2000. But sales were down by almost 6 percent, falling to 369 from 392 in 2000, and 18 percent lower than the 451 sales recorded in 1999.

The town’s real estate market has been very active since January, according to Moore, who said she is also seeing sellers get multiple offers.

The encouraging sign, she said, is that there are more single-family homes in Lexington coming on the market in the $300,000 range, a modest price in a very high-end community.

Just a few miles away in Arlington, real estate agents are waiting for more single-family homes to become available.

Diane A. Boudreau, broker/owner of Sweeney & O’Connell Real Estate in Arlington, said in February she had at least 12 single-family homes listed at her office. Last week, her office only had one available.

Boudreau said many Arlington homeowners wanting to upgrade used to search for larger homes in nearby Belmont, Lexington or Winchester. Nowadays, more Arlington residents are expanding or renovating their current homes instead of moving away.

“People are realizing they want to stay in town,” she said. “Arlington has good schools, good transportation, good restaurants. People have realized what a gem Arlington is.”

Also, in some of the more established towns of Middlesex County, including Arlington and Cambridge, there isn’t an abundance of vacant land to build new single-family homes, said Boudreau.

Those factors combined have led to a tight housing market in the region.

In Arlington, the median price for a single-family home has risen 31 percent since 1999 and 10 percent since 2000. Last year’s median price was $372,500, compared to $338,250 in 2000 and $284,000 in 1999.

Arlington’s single-family home sales were up slightly last year, rising nearly 4 percent from 314 in 2000 to 326 last year.