Mass. real estate prices looking up

(NECN: Peter Howe, Waltham, Mass.) - How's real estate doing in Massachusetts these days? Realtor Gary Rogers says a great answer's on Virginia Road here, where he just helped a couple sell their home in just two days, for the $469,000 asking price. It's the fourth property in four weeks that Rogers, who also serves as president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, says he's been able to sell in less than three days. Like other successful sellers, these owners wisely stayed reasonable on asking price, listing the four-bedroom Cape for $6,000 less than they bought it for in 2004, even though they'd put money into upgrading the kitchen and interior. It's on a one-fifth-acre lot with a nice shady back yard and deck and close to Route 128. New data for July from both the Realtors association and The Warren Group, publishers of the industry authority Banker and Tradesman newspaper, seem to indicate that the kind of quick, successful sale that happened here on Virginia Road is also happening more and more across Massachusetts. According to Warren Group, the number of homes sold in July was up 11.8 percent from July 2008. That was the first year over year monthly increase in all of 2009. The median sales price was down 4.7 percent, that's a marked improvement from the first five months of the year when prices were down by 10 percent-plus every month. Rogers says, "This home on Virginia Road is just one of many that are starting to come on that the sellers are being rewarded with a quick sale, and they're able to move on and buy a home of their own ... In the past sellers have put their homes on the market with the idea of what they paid for it having a bearing of what it's worth now. And now that has no bearing whatsoever. If you bought at a high point, it's not there ... Probably the biggest thing that we're seeing, the difference for successful sellers, is they are really listening to a good Realtor who knows where to price it to get it sold. Not give it away. Not leave money on the table. But to be a fair value for somebody that they feel safe enough to pay the money.'' Mortgage broker Debbie Siegel of Westchester Mortgage in Newton, Mass., said she sees a pickup, helped by the December 1 deadline for the $8,000 federal first-time homebuyer tax credit. "I'm seeing a lot of home purchases. I think people are trying to get in to the first time homebuyer program,'' Siegel says. "It's not about 'cash for clunkers' anymore. It's all about cash for cottages, condos, and single-family homes ... What I'm also seeing is historically low interest rates, the prices have dropped and people who were waiting on the sideline are now coming out -- who have cash, who have the steady job -- are buying.'' But, she's not convinced the market has truly bottomed out. "I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but I think there are a lot more issues to come, and I don't think we've turned the corner yet. With the unemployment number continuing to rise, I'm still very skeptical and concerned.'' But Gary Rogers says numbers now show, for sellers who aren't greedy, it's getting a lot better. "There is not enough inventory out there and the inventory, the homes that do come on the market that are priced accordingly and in good shape, good marketable condition, are selling very quickly.''