Thursday, February 24, 2011

Beantown Bust: Boston Home Sales and Prices January 2011

Recently the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) released their Existing Home Sales Report for January showing that single family homes sales declined 32.4% from December but increased 13.1% above the level seen in January 2010 with detached single family median home prices falling 5.2% below the level seen last year.

Condo sales, on the other hand, declined on both a monthly and annual basis dropping 35% from December and 5.2% from January 2010 while median selling prices declined 3.9% below the level seen a year earlier.

The S&P/Case-Shiller (CSI) Boston index indicated that area single family home prices declined 0.14% between November and December 2010 and registering a year-over-year decline of 0.81%, the third consecutive annual decline.

As for condos, the Boston condo CSI indicated area unit values declined 0.75% between November and December 2010 with values showing a year-over-year decline of 1.20%.

Single family home inventory rose 4% over the level seen in January 2010 with the monthly supply sitting at a whopping 11 months while condo inventory declined 5% but showed an even worse 11.1 months of supply.

Single family homes stayed on the market for an average of 143 days while condos stayed an average of 151 days, both values significantly higher than the level seen last year indicating that the sales pace is continuing to slide.

As in months past, be on the lookout for the inflation adjusted charts produced by BostonBubble.com for an even more accurate "real" view of the current home price movement.