Mass. home sales up 4.9% for 2013 despite Dec. slowdown

TOTAL SALES of single-family homes in Massachusetts for 2013 totaled 49,699, a 4.9 percent increase over 2012, but sales in December alone fell 0.3 percent compared with December 2012. The 3,712 home sales recorded in December represented the lowest number of sales recorded in one month since April, The Warren Group said Tuesday. / COURTESY THE WARREN GROUP
TOTAL SALES of single-family homes in Massachusetts for 2013 totaled 49,699, a 4.9 percent increase over 2012, but sales in December alone fell 0.3 percent compared with December 2012. The 3,712 home sales recorded in December represented the lowest number of sales recorded in one month since April, The Warren Group said Tuesday. / COURTESY THE WARREN GROUP

BOSTON – Sales of single-family homes in Massachusetts during 2013 rose 4.9 percent compared with the previous year, bolstered by strong fourth-quarter sales, according to a report released Wednesday by The Warren Group.

Year-to-date sales for the 12 months of 2013 totaled 49,699 compared with 47,401 in 2012. In the fourth quarter alone, sales increased 4.5 percent to 11,948 from 11,432 during the same period a year earlier.

In Bristol County, single-family home sales totaled 3,402 in 2013, an increase of 7.9 percent compared with 3,152 sales in 2012. Sales for the month of December declined 6.3 percent in Bristol County, however, dropping to 253 from 270 in December 2012.

Statewide, a total of 3,712 single-family homes sold in Massachusetts in December, a 0.3 percent decline from 3,725 sales during the same month the year prior. The 3,712 sales in December represented the lowest number of sales recorded in one month since April, The Warren Group said.

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“Low inventory combined with increasing interest rates have slowed the market at the end of 2013,” said The Warren Group CEO Timothy M. Warren Jr. “Sales and prices set a torrid pace in the third quarter of 2013 and through October. Now the market is taking a breather.”

The median price of Massachusetts single-family homes sold in 2013 increased to $320,000 from $290,000 one year earlier, a 10.3 percent increase. For the fourth quarter, the median price rose as well, up 5 percent to $310,000 in 2013 compared with $295,000 in the fourth quarter of 2012.

For the month of December, the median price of Massachusetts single-family homes was $311,125, a gain of 3.7 percent from $300,000 in December 2012.

Bristol County’s median price for 2013 was $245,000, an 8.4 percent increase from $226,000 in 2012. The county’s median price for December increased 5.4 percent to $245,000 from $232,500 during the same month the previous year.

Condominium sales statewide increased 6.8 percent for the 12 months of 2013, totaling 20,332 compared with 19,034 a year earlier, while fourth-quarter condo sales increased 13.6 percent to 4,980 from 4,383. December condo sales numbered 1,614, a 15.3 percent gain on 1,400 in December 2012.

Bristol County condo sales rose 21.2 percent in 2013 to 623 from 514 in 2012. Condo sales for the month of December saw a 39 percent increase, to 57 from 41.

The median condo price in Massachusetts rose 7.1 percent from the 2012 median of $276,500 to $296,000 in 2013. Quarterly, the median price increased to $299,900, a gain of 9.3 percent from $274,500 in the fourth quarter of 2012, while for December the median price rose 7.3 percent to $295,000 from $275,000 in December 2012.

The median condo price in Bristol County increased 16.2 percent in 2013 to $169,900 from $146,250 the previous year. In December, the median price rose 27.6 percent to $185,000 compared with $145,000 in December 2012.

The Warren Group is the Boston-based publisher of Banker & Tradesman, The Commercial Record and a series of association publications.

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