Price reductions have become more common in recent months in some of the suburbs east of Worcester. This Colonial-style home built in the 1980s in Northborough went on the market for $519,000, but its asking price was reduced to $499,900.

Home to several new housing developments featuring amenities attractive to young professionals, the suburbs sandwiched between Worcester and Framingham have seen residential sales slip and prices flatten in recent months.

Sales of single-family homes in towns like Southborough, Westborough, Marlborough, Shrewsbury and Boylston have dropped anywhere from 3 percent to nearly 31 percent during the first five months of the year compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, sales in towns like Northborough and Grafton have remained stable, rising a modest 2 percent – which translates into one more home sale – during the same months.

But as is the case in most parts of the state, median selling prices in those communities continue to climb – by as much as 29 percent in one town.

With sales volume flattening and homes taking a few days longer to sell in at least three of the region’s towns, sellers and their real estate agents are rethinking home selling prices and in some cases reducing the asking price.

“We’re seeing a ton of price changes,” said Michael L. Durkin of Carlson GMAC Real Estate in Marlborough. Price reductions were more pronounced in March and April, noted Durkin, as home sellers and agents rush to sell before summer, when the market typically slows down.

In recent weeks, for example, there have been price reductions ranging from 3.4 percent to nearly 10 percent. The asking price for a 1,500-square-foot Cape-style home on sale for about two months in Boylston was reduced from $319,000 to $299,900 to its current price of $287,500. In Northborough, the price of a Colonial built in the 1980s featuring three fireplaces was recently slashed from $519,000 to $499,900, and in Shrewsbury, the price of Colonial built in 1995 was cut from $559,000 to $539,900. Both homes have been on sale for about a month.

A Gradual Shift

But sales statistics show that even as the sales volume slipped and the number of for-sale homes started to increase, home sales prices didn’t ease as much.

Sales of single-family homes fell 30.8 percent in Southborough during the first five months of 2003. Twenty-seven single-family homes sold in Southborough through May 27 this year, compared to 39 during the same months a year ago, according to statistics provided by the Multiple Listing Service-Property Information Network.

Single-family home sales also dropped 6.6 percent in Shrewsbury, 3.5 percent in Westborough, and 3.2 percent in Marlborough during that same period, according to MLS-PIN.

But median selling prices rose 19.5 percent in Southborough, from $435,000 last year to $520,000 this year. Northborough’s median selling price surged 29.2 percent to $394,000 this year. In Marlborough, the median selling price jumped 19.3 percent – from $264,000 to $315,000 – while Westborough and Shrewsbury saw median price increases of 18.8 percent and 16.8 percent respectively.

A similar trend occurred statewide. Inclement weather and higher unemployment rates have led to fewer homes sales during the first four months of the year, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.

Sales of detached single-family homes in Massachusetts were 10 percent lower in April than the same month last year, according to MAR, but the average selling price jumped 6.8 percent to $350,196. Month-to-month sales, however, were up. There were 3,563 single-family home sales in the Bay State in April, a 12.4 percent increase from March when 3,170 homes were sold.

There has been a gradual shift in the real estate market, where buyers and sellers are on more equal footing, according to Bay State Realtors. A year or two ago, homes were selling so fast that 30 days was considered a long time “not to have the house under agreement,” said Durkin.

Now, he said, “People are being more selective, and they can afford to [be] because the houses aren’t going off the market overnight.”

In fact, it took anywhere from 11 to 18 days longer to sell homes in Northborough, Marlborough and Grafton from January through May 27 this year, compared to the same five-month period in 2002, according to MLS-PIN.

Yet, Durkin maintains that demand for homes “priced right” and in good shape -particularly newer homes built after the mid-1990s and priced in the high $500,000 to low $700,000 range – is still strong.

Most people relocating to the Bay State to work at UMass Memorial Medical Center or companies in the region like Staples are particularly interested in homes built within the last five years, according to Durkin. That’s good news for towns like Shrewsbury, Grafton and Northborough where there is a lot of new construction.

Aglaia Pikounis may be reached at apikounis@thewarrengroup.com.