Sunday, September 1, 2013

Are Home Prices Cooling Off......

.......after a double-digit tear? Or are they just taking a breather before heading up again?

That's one of the big questions right now in the housing market, both locally here in Massachusetts and Greater Boston and nationally as well.

Home sales across Massachusetts are back to boom-time levels, with the July the best showing since 2006, The Warren Group reports this morning.

Nearly 6,000 homes changed hands across the state in July. That's the most hectic month for sales since June 2006, the Boston-based real estate data firm and publisher reports.

However, Bay State home prices, after rising 12 percent through the first six months of the year, took a break in July.
The median home price in July was $349,000, down slightly from $350,000 in June. Hardly a big drop, but worth taking notice of.

The national numbers show a similar trend, with prices rising but at a slower rate, according to the latest Case-Shiller numbers.

Maybe we have plateaued, but we have done so at a high level. After all, at this point, you need to be pulling down well over $100,000 a year to afford the median prices home in Massachusetts, and even more than that if you are trying to buy within 128.

My bet is that home prices are just pausing before heading relentlessly upward again, but who knows, I may be wrong. Imagine that!

So what's your take?

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