LYNN — September sales of single-family homes in Lynn and Saugus outpaced the rest of the North Shore, according to The Warren Group, the Boston real estate tracker.
There were 64 homes sales in Lynn last month, up nearly 2 percent from the 58 sold one year ago. Saugus sales rose by 10 percent, with 34 single-family homes sold in September compared to 31 a year ago.
As sales soared in those two communities, so did prices. The median price for a single-family home in Lynn swelled to $339,00 in September, a nearly 13 percent increase from $300,750 a year ago. In Saugus, median prices rose by 18 percent to $412,500, up from $350,000 last September.
“Over the summer, there were tons of buyers who came to open houses in Lynn in search of value and they found it here,” said Kate DiVirgilio, a co-owner of Re/Max Advantage Lynn. “Many of the buyers were renting in places like Everett, Wakefield, Revere and Somerville, but they can buy a home in Lynn and their mortgage would be less than their rent.”
One of the factors that’s driving prices up is the lack of homes for sale, say brokers. On Friday, the MLS Property Information Network listed 60 single-family homes for sale in Lynn. Brokers say that number has been twice as high in the past.
Still, while much of the North Shore did not fare as well in terms of sales, prices continued to rise.
In Peabody, sales were off by nearly 14 percent, though prices climbed. The median price of a single-family home increased to $437,450 last month, up 15 percent from a year ago when the median was $380,000.
In Revere sales fell by 18 percent while the median price swelled to $384,500, a 5 percent hike over last September’s median of $365,000.
In Marblehead, sales were flat as median prices rose to $653,000 last month, up from $617,000 one year ago, a nearly 6 percent hike. Swampscott sales fell by a third as median prices increased by 8 percent to $506,000.
In Lynnfield, sales and prices were off. Sales fell by 33 percent and the median slipped by 4 percent to $680,000. In Nahant, just three home sold at a median price of $710,000 in September.
Medford home sales were flat while the median jumped by nearly 4 percent to $549,900. Malden saw sales nearly double in September as the median price for a single-family increased to $460,000, up 31 percent over last year’s median of $352,000.
Statewide, single-family home sales in Massachusetts decreased last month to the lowest number recorded in the month of September since 2014.
There were 5,376 single-family homes sold last month, slightly below the 5,582 in September 2016, marking a 4 percent decrease. In contrast, the median sale price of a single-family home in the Bay State last month increased 9.34 percent to $362,200, up from $331,175 last year.
