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.

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.

According to , last year in Winchester, between Nov. 15 through Dec. 31, 29 homes went under agreement in Winchester. The median sales price for this time period was $819,000, about $50,000 above Winchester’s typical median sales price.

In December, there were 81 homes on the market with a median price of $699,900. Last year at this time, it was a very similar picture with the same median price and 85 homes on the market, Shanahan said.

"It is true that buyer demand is generally higher in the spring market, but with this demand comes more competition from other sellers also listing their homes at this time," Shanahan said. "If your home is on the market today, you are competing with fewer listings than in other times of the year, particularly the spring market."