Nov. Home Sales Increase in 2011

According to The Warren Group's latest findings, single-family home sales increased 13 percent in Massachusetts when comparing Nov. 2011 with Nov. 2010.

Sales increased year over year from 2,875 to 3,253. The Nov. 2011 numbers are also reportedly better than those in 2007 and 2008, the group wrote.

Warren Group CEO Timothy M. Warren Jr. said in a press release that the Nov. numbers are a positive sign for the new year, but says he also worries that the overall 2011 number might approach record low numbers, “somewhere near the level in the 1990s,” he said.

Other Warren numbers show the median price of single-family homes dropped from $295,000 in Nov. 2010 to $271,000 in Nov. 2011. The median price from Jan. through Nov. 2011 was $290,000, down 2.5 percent from the previous year.

Although statewide the numbers were down in 2011, Dedham saw an 8 percent increase in the number of single family homes sold compared to 2010,  Jay Donahue said and added he expects an increase when the December numbers are released.

"Other than a lull in October, the pace was solid through to the end of the year," Donahue said.

The local market took a hit due to a harsh winter earlier this year, causing a delay in the start of the spring selling season, but Donahue said he sees signs of an early start in 2012.

"We are expecting an early spring market as evidence of demand is already being seen. The only thing holding it back will be available inventory," he said.

Both the Warren Group and The Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported  a jump in condominium sales from 2010 to 2011, according to Business Week. The Warren Group specifically reported that condo sales in the state increased from 1,157 to 1,245 year to year.