Boston Real Estate

Housing markets close to Boston received the biggest boost in home prices from the federal tax credits and low mortgage rates that buyers enjoyed in the first half of 2010.

A report released on Tuesday by The Warren Group of county-by-county median home prices for the first half of the year shows that Boston Suburbs generally saw the biggest increase in median prices from 2009.

With the exception of the tiny Dukes County market, which largely consists of second homes on Martha’s Vineyard, Norfolk County was the strongest market in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Norfolk County’s median price for a single-family home in the first six months of 2010 rose by 9.3 percent to $375,000. Meanwhile, the median price for single-family homes during the six-month period rose by 2.3 percent to $270,000 in Plymouth County and by 5.7 percent to $322,250 in Barnstable County, compared with the first half of 2009. Bristol County’s median price fell by 2.1 percent, to $235,000.

Suffolk County, which is mainly the city of Boston, enjoyed the second-best median price increase for single-family homes of any county: a 12.3 percent rise to $330,000. That contrasts to a statewide median price increase of 7 percent during the first half of 2010.

In general, strong single-family home sales continued through June, with home sales rising by more than 28 percent compared with June 2009. Home sales rose by a similar amount over the first six months of 2010.

Much of the sales activity could be attributed to the first-time home buyer tax credit of $8,000. Buyers needed to have a signed purchase-and-sale agreement by the end of April to take advantage of the federal credit. Most of those home sales closed by the end of June, and were reflected in June sales figures.

Early signals show that the market has softened somewhat since the April deadline, with sales agreements declining in May and June compared with the same months last year.

However, real estate agents said home values have stabilized. While they don’t expect the trend of 7 percent, year-over-year increases seen in the first half of 2010 to continue, agents said they don’t expect much of a decline, either.

That’s partly because interest rates are still near historic lows not seen in more than a generation: Many lenders are offering 30-year fixed mortgages with interest rates between 4.5 percent and 5 percent.

Right now the press is speaking to the slowdown in the economy that started in June. Greenspan mentions it in his video in one of my recent posts, Greenspan Talks The Economy And The Markets. Of course we will have to wait and see what shapes up for the second half of 2010 but the markets, both Stocks and Real Estate slow down every summer. The second half of 2010 will have to do its own talking.

Written By RE/MAX Destiny Accredited Buyers Agent Jeff Persons – 617.512.3443