You gotta love volatility! Or learn to love it!
September home sales data for Massachusetts was released yesterday from the Warren Group and the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. Median single family home prices in Massachusetts have given back all their gains since 2003, most recently falling 15.6% from September '07 to September '08. Yikes.
Nice graph from the Boston Globe here showing prices and sales since 1998 to give us a little historical perspective for the past 10 years:
The good news is that it appears with prices finally adjusting so low, that more buyers are entering the market and therefore more inventory is being sold, which theoretically should indicate the beginning of a bottom to the market. As you can see, the number of homes sold in September is up over September of '07 (about 8.5% higher). But I say theoretically because all of the market activity leading to this sales data for September was pre-economic meltdown and subsequent bailout in mid September. The impact won't be seen in the data until the next few months when October and November sales data is collected. It's tough to tell right now the extent of the impact, but I can say this much - it won't be a positive impact, so it is only a matter of degree on the negative side. Which is all too bad, because housing markets seemed to be indicating a recovery soon. Not going to hold my breath on that anymore....