LYNN ? Record low interest and federal tax credits for first-time homebuyers and those purchasing larger houses are fueling the spike in condominium sales across the country and along the North Shore.”Last week we had six offers on one property,” said David Hughes, principal of the David Hughes Century 21 real estate agency. “We haven’t see that in a while.”Hughes said residential home sales – condos, single-family and multiple-unit homes – increased overall by over seven percent last year.”Prices have stabilized,” he said, noting that condominiums in Lynn range in price from $60,000 for a unit in an older conversion to $400,000. “It’s a wide range and there are a lot more buyers out there. In fact, we’re looking for inventory right now because there has been such demand, mostly due to the $8,000 tax credit and interest rates around 5 percent,” he said. “We’re seeing multiple offers on properties that are priced right. “Hughes said the system of federal tax credits allows up to $6,500 to homeowners who are trading up, so long as the property is under agreement by April 30 and closed by the end of June. “Of course not everyone qualifies, but in our area a husband and wife with a combined income of under $250,00 makes the eligibility cutoff.”Soraya Cacici, a licensed realtor with RE/MAX Heritage, said condominium prices in Lynn have decreased by 30 percent since January 2008.”If you look at the hard data, from January 2008 to January 2009 in Lynn, the median sale price was $155,000. From January 2009 to January 2010, the median was $105,000. That’s a 30-percent drop in price,” she said.Plenty of condominiums are available in Lynn, while communities less affected by the national foreclosure crisis have far fewer on the market, she said.”Eighty percent of the condos actually selling are priced below $200,000 and about half of those are below $100,000,” said Cacici, whose sale area is focused on Lynn, Melrose and Wakefield but extends throughout the North Shore. “The condos priced above $200,000 are still hard to move.”As of Jan. 31, there were 79 condominiums on the market in Lynn, reflecting an inventory buildup of about eight months. “In a balanced market, that would be an inventory buildup of about five months,” she said. “In terms of the speed at which things are selling, that has gotten better. The average rate per month in 2008 was four percent, and now that has doubled. So things are selling at twice the pace, but for less money than they were the previous year.”The uptick in condo sales reverses a four-year trend. The sale of single-family homes in Massachusetts is up three percent over the previous year, based on information from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.Over the past 12 months, median home prices dipped 6.6 percent from 2008 levels, and were nearly 20 percent lower than the market peak in 2005.”The latter part of 2009 gave us some clear signs that the housing market is stabilizing and heading for a recovery, and while prices were still falling, the percentage drop last year wasn’t as steep as it was in the previous two years. What’s more, December was the first month in more than two years that the monthly median home priced climbed year-over-year,” said Timothy Warren Jr., chief executive officer of The Warren Group.A total of 41,583 single-family home sales were recorded in 2009 statewide, up from 40,356 in 2008.Condo sales followed a different pattern, falling last year to the lowest level since 1996. A total of 18,743 condos were traded in 2009, down 6.8 percent from the 20,109 sold in 2008.Despite the continued slump, condo sales surged in December surged 28.9 percent to 1,610 from 1,249 a year earlier.