Less-than-desirable news surfaced in the Bay State on Monday when real estate data publisher The Warren Group released new information showing home prices in Massachusetts fell 10-percent in March—the second steepest drop in The Warren Group’s history and the largest home price decline in the state since December of 1990.

According to the Warren Group, single-family home sales in March of this year dropped 31.6-percent when compared to the same month last year. In 2007, the group recorded 3,853 home sales in the New England state compared to 2,637 home sales in March of this year.  In addition, the group reported that the median sales price of a single-family home in Massachusetts hit $304,000 last month, compared to $340,000 during the same period last year. For the entire first quarter, the state also experienced a 27-percent decline in home sales.
“The Bay State’s housing market is looking a lot like it did at the end of 1990, when December prices fell 11-percent compared to the same month the year before,” said Timothy Warren Jr., chief executive officer of The Warren Group. “That was the low point of the 90’s housing crisis; afterwards, prices began to fall by smaller percentages and by 1993, they were level. But that downturn was fueled by banking failures in the 1980s, while this one has more to do with the staggering number of foreclosures facing Massachusetts homeowners.”