Real Estate Marketplace
Ron Carpenito
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The federal government's First Time Home Buyers tax credit program seems to have given a lift to the challenging real estate market here in Haverhill.
Results compiled by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and Multiple Listing Service confirm that single family home sales were up 23.5 percent to 105 units while the median sale price of those homes was up 5.4 percent to $263,000 in the second quarter of 2010 compared to 2009.
The condominium market experienced a similar increase with unit sales up 25.4 percent to 71 units while the median sale price of those units were up 8.2 percent.
This is great news, but still a far cry from the peaks obtained in the second quarter of 2004, which boasted unit sales of 181 single family homes and in 2005 where the median sale price of single family homes was $325,000 in the same quarter.
Our lower median sale price puts us squarely into the first-time home buyers sights and is one of the reasons Haverhill has benefited so well from the tax credit (as not every city did).
Also, given the weak economy, buyers are looking for value without having to stretch budgets and struggle with a large monthly payment to get it.
These factors — combined with the lowest mortgage rates in recorded history — attributed to the impressive quarter for our city.
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Ron Carpenito is a local Realtor who works with the Keller Williams Realty team. He is president of the Haverhill Exchange Club.
