BY THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — The city has bested seven other North Shore communities in home sales so far this year, according to new data from The Warren Group.
The number of single-family homes sold from January through June reached 306, up from 236 for the same period last year, a 30 percent hike and the highest percentage increase of any community in the region.
Condominium sales also were strong in Lynn as the number of units sold in the first half of the year soared to 106, up from 58 a year ago, a whopping 83 percent hike.
“The buyers are a combination of empty nesters who are looking to downsize and those numbers have been rising by more than a third since 2005,” said Daniel Bochicchio, a broker at Dockside Realty in Lynn.
Bochicchio is listing a 2,304-square-foot waterfront condominium at Seaport Landing on the Lynnway for $509,900.“And there are lots of new people moving into Lynn who are priced out of Greater Boston.”
“Let’s face it, where can you get waterfront for those kind of prices?”
As sales soared in Lynn so did prices. The median price for a single-family home swelled by 8 percent to $275,000 so far this year, compared to $255,000 in 2015. Condominium prices also jumped. The median cost of a condo climbed to $184,450, up from $170,750 a year ago.
Single-family home sales also did well in Revere, where they rose by 28 percent and median prices increased to $350,000 from January through June, up from $290,000 for the same period a year ago, a 21 percent hike.
In Saugus, sales rose by 10 percent and the median price increased by 12 percent to $367,000. In Marblehead, sales increased by 6 percent, while the median price reached $595,000, up 4.5 percent from last year.
Peabody home sales and prices also rose. Single-family sales were up 6 percent while median prices increased to $380,000, a 6 percent increase over a year ago.
But not every North Shore community did well in terms of sales. In Lynnfield, sales and prices were off by 23 percent but the median price managed to increase by 6 percent to $587,000. In Swampscott sales fell by 11 percent as median prices increased by 10 percent to $470,000. Nahant saw sales dip by 7 percent and the median price fell to $479,259, a 10 percent drop.
Statewide, year-to-date single-family home sales in Massachusetts rose by 24 percent, with 26,941 homes sold in the first half of 2016 compared with 21,688 sold during the same time last year. Prices remained relatively flat, with a median sale price of $339,000, up 1 percent from the same period in 2015.
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].
