Tuesday, June 26, 2007

House market at the bottom

According to the Warren Group, the publisher of Banker & Tradesman, the median price of a single-family home in Massachusetts was $315,000 in May, down 4.6 percent from a year ago when the median was $330,000. But a report from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors claimed that single-family home prices "remain strong," as it said that the median price for single family homes rose 0.7 percent from $352,700 in May 2006 to $355,000 in May 2007.

The two groups did find some common ground of number of single family homes sold in May was lower than in May 2006. Warren Group states the volume of single-family homes sold in May was lower by 9.1 percent than May 2006 while the MAR says it is off by 7.5 percent.

In an lets-spin-the-bad-news-into-good-news category, Doug Azarian, MAR president, said in a statement: "Stable prices and declining supply indicate that there is still a steady demand. In fact, May is the fifth straight month that residential supply levels have gone down."

If prices are still declining in the state, why would people want to sell now? And if home owners are holding on to their property because the median prices continue to slide, wouldn't the supply naturally begin to dry up? For those who are looking to buy a house, the market is very soft and this could be the best time to buy in - if you can find a house that is.

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1 Comments:

At 11:15 PM, June 27, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The only people who are selling are the people that HAVE to. I am guessing a lot of people can't sell because they are underwater on the mortgage with reduced prices and funky mortgages. Some buyers are going to take the plunge, but I'll bet dollars to donuts that those who do have enough savings to make a down payment (yes you actually might need these again!) are enjoying the slide that the home prices are taking.

 

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