Inflation-adjusted price declines since Sept 2005 in MA

BostonBubble.com has done an extraordinary analysis of single family home sales in Massachusetts that ought to be mandatory reading for any homebuyer making an offer this Spring.  Thanks for their permission to reprint the graph above and pull quotes below from their full post, "Boston Bubble Report: What's Really Going on in MA- Feb 2006":

"It turns out that Massachusetts real estate has seen year over year price declines every single month between September 2005 and February 2006 inclusive. While the Massachusetts Association of Realtors officially states that February 2006 was the first time in several years that there have been year over year declines, that is only true in nominal terms. Seasonally adjusted values have been declining for half a year now in real terms."

The MIT graduate behind BostonBubble.com is one of the bloggers who participates in our monthly Bubble Hour to review housing statistics as soon as they are released by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.  Please let us know if you would like to participate in those Bubble Hours, online or in-person by emailing [email protected]. In the meantime, your comments are welcome below or on the BostonBubble forum where you'll find another remarkable graph and more insights into why "real prices are down 11.44% from their peak. This is in contrast with the 9.48% that the MAR is reporting."

BostonBubble's analysis seems to confirm this pull quote from an article which appeared yesterday in the Lowell Sun:

Home salesboom now grows quiet
Prices also drop; experts  say buyer's market looms

Gus Faucher, director of macroeconomics at Moody's Economy.com, said he has been predicting for some time that the local market would come back to Earth. In the second quarter of 2005, Economy.com determined that the Middlesex County housing market was overpriced by 19 percent.