Interesting article on Boston.com reporting that in Massachusetts the average single family home price is almost 10% (9.6%) to $285,000.  Sales volume in Massachusetts is up 11.6%.

Timothy M. Warren Jr., chief executive of the Warren Group had this to say:

“We had surprising gains in January, and that’s good news for the economy and that’s good news for the housing market.  The real wild card is what will happen after mid-year.’’

Some believe the increase in pricing and volume is happening because of the tax credit that will be ending in April, as well as the artificially low interested rates.

Economic analyst will wait until at least midyear to make a more accurate assessment on the market.  Just last week the Fed raised the discounted interest rate from .5% to .75% which was shocking to some, but believed by many to be a step towards normalcy.

What do you think?

Its not all bad news out there……

“Sure, there was a lot of sound (the housing bubble grows) and fury (the bubble pops) in the last decade.  But numbers released this morning show that home prices rose by 46% between January 2000 and December 2009.  That’s way above the rate of inflation.  So odds are if you bought a house at the beginning of the decade and sold it at the end of the decade, you made money.  That’s a big deal, given how many people (who don’t wind up as anecdotes in news stories) buy a house and live in it for 10, or 20, or 30 years. ”

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/02/house_prices_rose_50_in_the_au.html?ft=1&f=93559255