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.

In Westwood, though, only seven homes were sold in Nov. 2011, as compared to 11 homes sold in Nov. 2010, according to figures provided by Robin Wish, Vice President of .

The median price for a single family home in Westwood in Nov. 2011 was $450,000, a drop from $575,000 in Nov. 2010, according to Wish. The average sale price in Nov. 2011, meanwhile, was $691,864, whereas in Nov. 2010 the average sale price was $826,336.

Despite the drop in sales, though, Wish said it was a successful year overall.

"Last year there was that first-time buyer's credit, and now if you look at the interest rates, you can save so much more over the life of the loan," Wish said. "I found that in 2011, I was busy throughout the year. Physically, it's a very cyclical market."

Added Wish, "I think we had a great year, as far as the local market goes. I think there's a lot of optimism out there."