Sales of single-family homes in the Bay State continued their steady rise in July, ""The Warren Group"":http://www.thewarrengroup.com/ reported Tuesday.
[IMAGE]A total of 4,979 single-family homes sold statewide in July, up from almost 27 percent year-over-year. This July was the best for sales volume since 2005, when sales reached 6,672.
Year-to-date, 26,596 homes have sold in Massachusetts, a 24.8 percent increase from the same period in 2011.
[COLUMN_BREAK]Cory S. Hopkins, editorial director of The Warren Group, said the news is cause for cautious optimism.
""There are a lot of good signs pointing toward a real estate recovery,"" Hopkins said. ""But we are comparing sales to a very depressed market last summer, so it's important to step back and realign expectations.""
July also saw condominium sales increase in the state, rising 34 percent year-over-year. Year-to-date condo sales also rose almost 26 percent from the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the median price of single-family homes stayed more or less flat, increasing less than 1 percent to $318,000. July was the second month in 2012 in which the median price posted an increase and was also the second consecutive month that prices exceeded $300,000.
The median condo price, on the other hand, slipped a bit. The median selling price was $295,000, down 0.3 percent from a year earlier.
There's some good news, though: The year-to-date median price of condos in Massachusetts is $280,000, up almost 3 percent from the same period in 2011.