Greater Boston home prices have risen an impressive 6.9 percent from their lows set last March, according to figures released today by Standard and Poors. The gain marks quite a near-term turnaround for Boston metro home prices.
The S&P/Case-Shiller Index for the Boston metro area has now risen for the fifth month in a row after falling for the first three months of the year. (Index results for August 2009 are the most recent released by Standard and Poors.)
Home prices still down substantially
The 2009 Boston single family home price increase does need to be put into context as demonstrated by the chart below:
The Boston home price Index is 4.2% lower than year-ago levels.
And the Index remains a sobering 14.5% below the peak it reached in September 2005. But again, that is quite an improvement over the 20%+ cumulative price decline from market peak we were confronted with last March.
2009 real estate market performance encouraging
Despite where Massachusetts home prices are now compared to 2005, we should be encouraged by the 2009 home price rebound to date.
This is especially true since Massachusetts home sale volume has also been on the rise in 2009.
The number of homes sold in MA has risen for the third month in a row according to a separate report issued today by Banker and Tradesman. Third quarter 2009 home sale volume is 6 percent higher than year-ago levels.
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