Contrarian Boston/Breaking News

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Real estate blues: Massachusetts home sales sink to lows not seen since the Great Recession

That’s the word this morning from The Warren Group.

Single-family home sales across the state plunged 26 percent in September compared to the same month a year ago, according to a report just out from the real estate data firm.

Just 3,608 homes changed hands last month, the fewest since September 2010 when we were just emerging from a dire financial crisis and the worst economic downturn in decades.

However, unlike that last downturn, when real estate values fell by double digits, home and condo prices continue to rise.

The culprit? A chronic shortage of homes listed for sale brought on by decades of underbuilding. And that scarcity has combined with the big increase in interest rates to keep prices high while killing sales.

Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash

The median price of a single-family home in Massachusetts hit $570,000 in September. And in Greater Boston, it is now a stratospheric $720,000, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.

”Low inventory, record high prices, and rising interest rates have made it progressively more difficult for buyers to purchase homes – regardless of where they’re looking,” said Cassidy Norton, associate publisher and media relations director of The Warren Group, in a statement.

Are home prices finally reaching their peak? Some mixed signals in the latest real estate numbers