Home prices level off in New England cities

BOSTON – While home sales prices skyrocketed in dozens of metropolitan areas in the South and West last year, most New England cities limped along.

Median prices for condominiums in Worcester and Hartford, and for condos and single-family homes in eastern Connecticut increased more than 10 percent in the final months of 2005 when compared with the same period a year earlier.

The rest of New England, meanwhile, was in single digits, far behind the huge percentage gains in places like Florida and Arizona, according to the National Association of Realtors.

“Sellers have to be a little bit more patient,” Boston broker John A. Keith said. “It definitely feels like it’s a buyers’ market.”

The median sales price for a single-family home in the eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire region was $397,500, up 1.8 percent compared with the end of 2004. The condo median sales price of $291,700, up 3.3 percent, according to the NAR.

The region comprising Norwich and New London, Conn., had the largest price increases compared with other New England areas in the NAR report. The median condo price was $181,500 – up 23 percent – while the median single-family was $262,100 – an 11.2 percent increase.

“It has everything anyone would want,” said John Bolduc, executive vice president of the Eastern Connecticut Association of Realtors. “Most of the towns are small and relatively quiet. On the shore, you’ve got casinos, beaches, tourism areas.”

The region also has jobs. Employers include drug maker Pfizer, Electric Boat, casinos, and a Naval submarine base. There’s also a strong market for second-home buyers from New York and Massachusetts, Bolduc said.

“We’ve had double-digit inflation in house prices in each of the last four years. That can’t be sustained over a long period of time,” he said. “The inventory we have now has grown to a more normal level. That tells me we’re returning to a normal market.”

The Hartford area’s median condo price was $163,900 – up 10.8 percent.

Worcester’s condo sales also were strong. The median condo price increased 11.7 percent, to $213,500. A new commuter rail stop with 10 daily roundtrips to Boston has helped.

“I’m very confident about the future of Worcester,” said Scott Cheney, who paid $227,000 for a two-bedroom, two-bath condo at Fremont Lofts. “It’s become a much more cultural city.”

The southern Maine area of Portland and Biddeford was among the few regions of the nation where the median condo sales price fell. It dropped 3.2 percent to $207,900. The median single family home, however, saw an increase of 8.1 percent, to $245,700.

Portland agent Joseph Piccone said there are 800 new condos being built in the area in the next two years, and most are high-end.

“I’m not convinced it’s peaked,” he said of the condo prices. “It keeps climbing and people keep paying the money. People come here for the low crime, the Maine way of life.”

The median is the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less.