In Massachusetts, year-long moving trends reversed

Home sales in Massachusetts had been on the rise all year, but they took a huge drop last month.

The state had experienced 12 straight months of rising home sales and relocating homebuyers, but July brought a 26 percent year-over-year decrease, reported the Warren Group. There were just 3,668 sales in the state in July - the fewest for that month since 1990. The drop lent some credence to the theory that the recently-expired federal homebuyer tax credit pushed some of the summer's usual moving activity to the spring months instead, as buyers rushed to meet the April 30 signing deadline. Yet some still wonder if this is the start of a greater trend.

"Whether this is a temporary dip due to the rush to qualify for the tax credit, or whether this is a sign of a declining market for the balance of the year is the big question in my mind," said Thomas Warren, the group's CEO.

Year-to-date home sales are still 15.5 percent higher than they were in 2009. But July's drop severely undercuts much of the progress since in June, when home sales increased to their highest level in four years, according to the Warren Group.


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