Gateway Cities lead a jump in home sales in October

Barry Chin/Globe Staff

November 24, 2015 12:50 PM

Ranging from old mill towns like Lowell to New Bedford with its historic ties to the sea, the Bay State’s “Gateway Cities” are seeing a surge in home sales as buyers seek affordable alternatives, new stats show.

Sales of homes in these older cities with proud histories as major manufacturing and fishing ports jumped 35 percent in October and are up 20 percent in 2015 through the end of October, Boston-based real estate publisher and data firm The Warren Group reports.

Nineteen of the state’s 26 Gateway Cities are in the six Massachusetts counties that saw double-digit growth in home sales in October: Bristol, Essex, Plymouth, Norfolk, Hampden and Worcester.

Home prices in many of these cities are still in the $200,000 to $250,000 range, far less expensive than the state’s median home price, or, for that matter, many suburbs inside the Route 128 beltway.

Overall, home sales across Massachusetts shot up 16.3 percent in October. That tops off the busiest five months of single-family sales since at least 1987, with home sales taking off in June after a slow start to the year amid the arctic winter of 2015, according to The Warren Group.

The median home price of a home in Massachusetts rose 2.1 percent in October, to $327,000.

Condo sales jumped 8 percent across the state, while the median price of a condo hit $315,000 after a 7 percent increase, Warren Group stats show.

“Is the dramatic spurt in sales volume purely the effect of our historically bad winter? Or did the improved economy and jobs picture unleash unprecedented pent-up demand? I’d say both, but the weather clearly plays a role,” said Tim Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, in a press statement.

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