November’s 16.7 percent drop in median home sales price in Massachusetts is the biggest decrease in more than 20 years, according to a recently released report by Boston’s The Warren Group, which also indicated an 18.4 percent drop in single family home sales volume.
The November median price dropped from $330,000 to $275,000 during the same month in 2007, and extends the monthly price drops of September and October, which both saw their own drops of 15.3 percent and 13.9 percent, respectively, compared to the same months a year ago. These drops continue this year’s trend, which has seen a nearly 11 percent drop in median price during the first 11 months of 2008 compared to the same time last year.
The plunge in sales volume from this November to last, from 3,211 to 2,620, comes after two consecutive months of increases. It’s the slowest home sales pace The Warren Group report has recorded since it began tracking the market in 1987. Year-to-date sales through November are also down 12.5 percent in the Bay State.

Warren Group CEO Timothy Warren said he expects the state to show similar sales drops, and subsequent price declines, over the next two months.
“The slow sales volume in November reflects what was happening in the late summer and early fall when most of these sales transactions were being negotiated,” Warren said. “Fear and panic gripped consumers as the stock market tanked and financial firms and other companies reported heavy losses which caused many would-be home buyers to pull back.”
The hardest hit areas were the western portion of the state and islands, particularly in Nantucket and Dukes counties, islands in the southeastern region of the state, which have seen year-to-date drops in home sales of 38.6 percent and 25.1 percent, respectively. The same snapshot of time in Franklin and Hampden counties show sales are down more than 18 percent from 2007.
Single-family home sales in Franklin County, in the northwest region of the state, and Hampden County, in the southwest region, are off more than 18 percent from January through November compared to a year ago. Sales in Hampshire County, in between Franklin and Hampden counties, fell 17.4 percent during the same period.
Condominium sales in the state didn’t fare much better. Volume in November, 2008 was 1,204, down 27.5 percent from November, 2007’s level of 1,660, which brings the year-to-date change down 23.1 percent.
The Warren Group is the publisher of Banker & Tradesman, The Commercial Record, and a series of association publications.