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Massachusetts saw the highest number of single-family home sales in December since 2004, according to a new report from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.
The 4,913 sales in December 2015 showed a 16.6 percent increase since December of last year, when there were 4,214 single-family homes sold.
The strong month capped off a very strong second half for 2015. Overall, single-family home sales grew 10.5 percent in 2015, reaching 54,523 sales compared with 49,327. But throughout May 2015, there were only 15,238 sales, a 1.7 percent decrease from the first five months of 2014.
In June of this year, the market took off, posting seven straight months of double-digit sales growth. From June through December, there were 39,274 sales, a 17.2 percent increase over the same stretch in 2014, when there were 33,501 single-family homes sold.
“The weather played a major part in delaying the market early in the year,” Tim Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, said in a statement. “But the market stayed strong all the way through December because the region’s economy is very strong. Buyers felt confident in their futures, and sellers finally saw the value of their homes return to near-peak levels in many parts of the state.”
The median sales price for a single-family home in December was $335,000, a 4.7 percent increase from December of 2014’s median price of $320,000. Overall, the 2015 median price for a single-family home was $340,000, a 3 percent increase from the full-year 2014 median of $330,000.
