Good news, prospective home buyers: After climbing past the $1 million mark for the first time in June, Greater Boston home prices moderated slightly last month.
The bad news: The median-priced single-family home in the region still sold for $967,000 in July, according to new figures released Wednesday by the Greater Boston Association of Realtors.
And overall, that figure is still up 5.3 percent from July 2024, when the median-priced home sold for $918,000, according to GBAR, which covers most of Greater Boston except for the North and South Shores.
It’s a reminder of just how far out of reach homeownership is for many people in this region, particularly those who earn modest incomes.
“Typical residential real estate markers are down from June but strong compared to last July,” said GBAR president Mark Triglione, who is also the owner of Premier Realty Group Inc. in Reading. “Well-priced properties continue to sell speedy, for over asking cost and with favorable terms for the seller.”
Still, there were some positive signs that the housing market may be starting to thaw after several years of stagnation.
The volume of home sales, for example, rose modestly. Some 1,256 single-family homes were sold last month, up 2.5 percent from July 2024. And new listings and active inventory — both indicators of housing market activity — were up from the same time last year in both the single-family and condominium markets. Active inventory of single-family homes was up 19.4 percent compared to the same month in 2024, while inventory of condominiums was up 29 percent.
That is an indication that after years of waiting due to elevated interest rates, sellers may finally be putting their homes up for sale again.
Interest rates, which began to rise in late 2021, have sidelined many sellers because they do not want to owe a higher monthly payment on a new house. Higher rates have iced out would-be buyers, too, because there are so few options to choose from, and the homes that are available come with both high up-front costs and high monthly payments.
At this time in 2021, the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 2.86 percent, according to Freddie Mac. Last week, that number was 6.58 percent, meaning monthly interest payments on newly purchased homes are more than double what they would have been four years ago.
Home prices march ever-higher in Greater Boston because there is an extreme shortage of homes compared with the demand for housing in the region. But when the housing market is frozen — as in, homes aren’t changing hands between buyers and sellers — it worsens the problem, because demand is focused on the few properties that do go up for sale, driving prices even higher.
Statewide, the median-single family home cost rose year-over-year in July, from $650,000 in 2024 to $665,000 last month, according figures out this week from The Warren Group, a real estate analytics firm.
And while prices are down from June’s peak, prospective home buyers shouldn’t expect meaningful cost drops anytime soon, while the region’s deep shortage of homes persists.
Andrew Brinker can be reached at andrew.brinker@globe.com. Follow him @andrewnbrinker.
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