If you’re looking for a home in the Bay State, particularly in Greater Boston, good luck. A tight market is driving up prices, experts say, and houses are selling fast.
Statewide, 5,591 single-family homes sold in June, up 1 percent over the same period last year, making it the best month for sales since June 2010, according to The Warren Group.
“There’s pent-up demand among buyers, people who didn’t do anything during the recession because they were scared,” said CEO Timothy M. Warren Jr. “Now those people are feeling more optimistic, and what they’re finding is when they go to an open house, there’s a lot of other people there, too. It leads to more aggressive bids, often over the asking price.”
For the ninth consecutive month, year-over-year home prices also increased. The median sale price of single-family homes statewide increased almost 9 percent to $350,000 in June, the highest single-family home prices since 2007.
The Massachusetts Association of Realtors, which tracks sales by licensed realtors, said June saw the most homes sold in one month since August 2005.
Kimberly Allard-Moccia, the association’s president and broker-owner of Century 21 in Braintree, said prices are up because demand is outpacing supply.
The hottest properties are close to where the jobs are, making Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline and other communities around Boston particularly attractive to buyers, Warren said.
Within the past 30 days alone, for example, 10 homes have sold in Somerville at an average price of $634,050 and after an average of just 16 days on the market, said Paul Yorkis, owner of Patriot Real Estate in Medway.