The early spring real estate market has shown “a nice bump” in sales activity, commented Plymouth County Register of Deeds John R. Buckley Jr.
The registry recorded 850 deeds in April, compared to 652 deeds recorded in April 2020, a jump of 30 percent. So far this year Plymouth County recorded 2,931 deeds compared to 2,592 recorded at this time in 2020. This represents a 13 percent increase from the 2020 sales activity, Buckley said.
Average sales price has shown a “healthy” 14 percent increase. In 2020, the average sale price was $442,575. The 2021 number exceeds the half million dollar mark, calculating out to a year-to-date average sales price of $506,401.
“I continue to be concerned about the first-time home buyers, especially when the average sales price for a home in Plymouth County is over a half million dollars,” said Buckley. “For some time now we have heard about the low inventory from the realtors and the real estate professionals. Certainly this increase in sales is welcome news. We have a couple of months to go in the 2021 spring market, so it will be interesting to watch the sales numbers for May and June. We would love to see a continued climb in the numbers.”
Plymouth County has again recorded more mortgages in a month than it recorded during the comparative month from the preceding year. In April 2021, Plymouth County recorded 3,330 mortgages. Last April, Plymouth County recorded 2,719 mortgages, a 22 percent increase. Refinance activity continues to drive the numbers. By the end of April 2020, the registry had recorded 8,747 mortgages, and by the end of April 2021, 14,055 mortgages have been recorded. This represents a 61 percent increase in mortgage activity.
Also consistent with recent reports, the state moratorium is keeping the foreclosure numbers down. Plymouth County recorded 24 foreclosure deeds year-to-date, down by 76 percent from the 99 foreclosure deeds recorded by this time in 2020.
