Average MA Home Now Costs $610K. What About In Barnstable?

BARNSTABLE, MA — In what's become a familiar trend for those paying close attention to the Massachusetts home market, the number of homes sold across the state dropped in June compared to the prior year while the price of those homes spiked.

The Warren Group's June housing market report saw both single-family home and condo sales decline on a year-over-year basis in June, though the price of those sales reached new all-time highs, according to the publication.

June's 4,441 home sales were a nearly 9 percent decrease from June 2023. Meanwhile, the price of June's average home sale jumped from $615,000 in 2023 to $665,000 in 2024, an 8 percent spike and a new record for the month.

In Barnstable, the average home price for June was $950,000 compared to $766,000 in 2023. The market saw 12 homes move compared to 11 in 2023.

Barnstable serves as an outlier in the number of homes sold this year, with a 72 percent increase. The sale price for those homes is not an outlier, with the average sale price sitting at $950,000 for the year as opposed to $790,000 in 2023.

So far, 2024 isn't terribly far off when it comes to the number of homes sold compared to 2023 with just less than 1 percent fewer. However, the year-to-date price is close to 10 percent higher than 2023, with an average Massachusetts home now selling for $609,900, The Warren Ground found.

“It wasn’t that long ago that the prospect of the median single-family home price exceeding $600,000 seemed like a long shot, but here we are with a median price approaching $700,000,” said Cassidy Norton, Associate Publisher and Media Relations Director of The Warren Group.

Many potential home buyers have been frustrated by high mortgage interest rates, but Norton said it may actually be serving as a buffer to even higher pricing jumps.

“A lack of inventory is clearly driving this record-setting appreciation. Despite these record prices, higher mortgage interest rates have actually slowed price growth – the median may have been even higher without those changes – but it has also contributed to low inventory.”

The price jump for condos hasn't been quite as severe, but the market has been slower than that of the home market, comparatively.

There were 1,938 condominium sales in June 2024, a major decline from the 2,324 sold in June 2023. Meanwhile, the median sale price rose 5 percent on a year-over-year basis to $570,000 – a new all-time high for condos, according to The Warren Group.

In 2024 so far, the condo market has slowed by 4.5 percent from 2023 while they've also gotten nearly 6 percent more expensive, now donning a median sale price of $540,000.

“Massachusetts condo sales followed similar activity to single-family homes,” Norton said. “Sales were down on a year-over-year basis while the median sale price reached a new all-time high. The median Massachusetts condo price may well exceed $600,000 in the coming months.”