Tight market: Home sales down, but prices around Boston sky-high

Statewide home prices ticked down again in May, but those seeking to buy in certain areas, namely Boston, are facing sky-high values, according to data released by the state’s top market-watchers.

The median sales price for a single-family home statewide dropped by just a fifth of a point to $589,000 in May, the second straight month that costs declined on a year-over-year basis, according to the Warren Group.

But that number is lower than the decline in April, when the statewide median sales price for a single-family home dropped 1.2% compared to April 2022. Massachusetts hadn’t seen a year-over-year price drop since 2018.

“That definitely indicates a change in the market,” Warren Group associate publisher Cassie Norton told the Herald Tuesday, “but I don’t think it’s necessarily one that’s helpful. I think this is easing more toward a stalemate as opposed to being a red hot buyers market.”

Moving to Greater Boston may be tougher than ever though, with the median sales price for a single-family home in the region setting an all-time monthly high last month, as costs soared 2.9% from May 2022 to $900,000, according to the Greater Boston Association of Realtors, which collects data from 64 Easter Mass. towns and cities.

That’s more than the previous record high of $899,950 in June 2022, GBAR figures show.

A limited number of homes on the market is greatly benefiting sellers, as the low inventory ramps up sales prices, said GBAR President Alison Socha, an agent with Melrose-based Leading Edge Real Estate.

“With listings at a premium,” Socha said in a release, “we’re seeing multiple offers, the waiving of contingencies, and sales above asking price occurring with increased regularity, and that’s making the market more competitive and placing additional upward pressure on prices.”

Fewer homes being sold across the Bay State continued to be a trend in May, which saw a whopping 25.1% decrease in sales compared to May 2022, with 3,611 single-families sold this year compared to more that 4,800 last May, according to the Warren Group.

The reduction in sales volume follows a similar one in April, when single-family sales were down 25.3% statewide compared to April 2022.

Norton said she’s “honestly not sure” when the housing market will bounce back due to the shaky economy.

She highlighted how interest rates remain high, though the Fed decided last week to forgo another increase in its benchmark interest rate, leaving it at about 5.1%, and how the state continues to grapple with a supply-and-demand issue.

“The only way to fix that is to have either interest rates come down again, which I don’t see being likely,” Norton said, “or build more housing, which as we all know is a challenge in Massachusetts.”