Central Mass. home sales continued decline in January, even as state sees first increase since 2021

A street of recently constructed single-family homes

Photo | Timothy Doyle Single-family homes in Millbury

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The new year has brought more of the same in the Worcester single-family housing market, as prices continued to increase as the total number of sales fell in January, but potential homebuyers saw some relief elsewhere in Central Massachusetts.

Worcester saw 55 single-family home sales in January, according to data released on Tuesday by The Warren Group, a Peabody-based real estate research firm. This was 11 fewer than the city saw in January 2023, representing a 16.7% decline.

The median sales price in Worcester was $390,000, a 9.8% increase over the median price of $355,250 seen at this time in 2023.

Fitchburg saw similar trends, with 14 home sales, a 39.1% decrease from January 2023, while the median price rose to $340,250, a 10.5% increase from the median price of $308,000 seen in the same month last year.

Other area cities saw more promising numbers for prospective home buyers; Framingham saw 29 home sales, a 107.1% increase from last January’s total of 14, while Leominster saw 15 sales, the same number seen at that time in 2023. Median prices in both cities also saw a slight decline, with prices in Framingham dropping 1% from $621,000 to $615,000, while median prices in Leominster dropped from $438,000 to $430,000, a 1.9% decrease.

On a county-wide level, Worcester County saw 352 home sales in January, a 5.1% decrease from the 371 sales in January 2023, while the median price rose from $385,000 to $425,000, a 10.4% increase. In Middlesex County, 449 homes were sold in January, a 3% increase from last year.

Prices in both counties continued to climb. Worcester County saw the median sale price rise 10.4% from $385,000 to $425,000, while prices in Middlesex County rose 7.7%, from $650,000 to $700,000.

On a statewide basis, Massachusetts saw 2,396 home sales in January, a 0.2% increase from the same month in 2023. The median sale price rose from $499,000 to $550,000, a 10.2% increase.

“Single-family sales were relatively flat from January 2023, but the slight uptick is the only year-over-year increase we’ve recorded since the middle of 2021,” Cassidy Norton, associate publisher and media relations director of The Warren Group, said in a release that accompanied the organization’s January data. “The issues that pained the Massachusetts housing market in 2023, like limited inventory, economic uncertainties, and higher interest rates are still at the forefront of prospective buyers.”